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  • Open Access

Dark matter silences Cepheids in the Galactic Center

Djuna Croon1,*, Tim Linden2,3,†, and Jeremy Sakstein4,‡

  • *Contact author: djuna.l.croon@durham.ac.uk
  • †Contact author: linden@fysik.su.se
  • ‡Contact author: sakstein@hawaii.edu
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Phys. Rev. D 113, 043003 – Published 3 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/pbgr-66b9

Abstract

Upcoming near-infrared facilities (e.g., JWST/NIRCam, ELT/MICADO) will dramatically increase the detectability of Galactic Center Cepheids despite extreme extinction at optical wavelengths. In this work, we study the impact of dark matter (DM) annihilation on Cepheid stars in the inner parsec of the Milky Way. We show that at captured densities ρ∼105  GeV cm−3, blue loop evolution can be suppressed, preventing the formation of low-mass (3–6M⊙) short-period (1–6 days) Cepheids. For even slightly higher DM densities, Cepheids are suppressed across their entire mass range. A dearth of such variables could provide indirect evidence for DM heating. Notably, this effect occurs at lower DM densities than required to impact main-sequence stars. Future surveys will thus offer a novel, complementary probe of DM properties in galactic nuclei.

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Phys. Rev. D 113, 043003– Published 3 February, 2026
  • Received 9 October 2025
  • Accepted 15 December 2025
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.

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