Dark Stars: Improved Models And First Pulsation Results

We use the stellar evolution code MESA to study dark stars (DSs). DSs, which are powered by dark matter (DM) self-annihilation rather than by nuclear fusion, may be the first stars to form in the universe. We compute stellar models for accreting DSs with masses up to 10(6) M-circle dot. The heating due to DM annihilation is self-consistently included, assuming extended adiabatic contraction of DM within the minihalos in which DSs form. We find remarkably good overall agreement with previous models, which assumed polytropic interiors. There are some differences in the details, with positive implications for observability. We found that, in the mass range of 10(4)-10(5) M-circle dot, our DSs are hotter by a factor of 1.5 than those in Freese et al., are smaller in radius by a factor of 0.6, denser by a factor of three to four, and more luminous by a factor of two. Our models also confirm previous results, according to which supermassive DSs are very well approximated by (n = 3)-polytropes. We also perform a first study of DS pulsations. Our DS models have pulsation modes with timescales ranging from less than a day to more than two years in their rest frames, at z similar to 15, depending on DM particle mass and overtone number. Such pulsations may someday be used to identify bright, cool objects uniquely as DSs; if properly calibrated, they might, in principle, also supply novel standard candles for cosmological studies.