The Effects of Spin-Independent Dark Matter on Stellar Evolution

Dark matter can be captured by stars and transfer energy, which can leads to significant changes in the evolution of stars. I will focus on Asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) which has no present day annihilation, meaning that stars can capture and build up large quantities of dark matter. I will focus specifically on spin-independent ADM, and therefore the relevant cross sections are between the ADM and nuclei which have atomic numbers that are multiples of two. This captured ADM can transport energy throughout the star and lead to significant effects when compared to stars with no dark matter. I use Modules for Experiments in Stellar Astrophysics (MESA) in order to model stars and an independent Fortran package to interface with MESA for the effects of ADM.