Neutron Stars Exclude Light Dark Baryons

Abstract

Exotic particles carrying baryon number and with a mass of the order of the nucleon mass have been proposed for various reasons including baryogenesis, dark matter, mirror worlds, and the neutron lifetime puzzle. We show that the existence of neutron stars with a mass greater than 0.7 M places severe constraints on such particles, requiring them to be heavier than 1.2 GeV or to have strongly repulsive self-interactions.