Diffusion of dark matter in a hot and dense nuclear environment

Abstract

We calculate the mean free path in a hot and dense nuclear environment for a fermionic dark matter particle candidate in the $\sim$GeV mass range interacting with nucleons via scalar and vector effective couplings. We focus on the effects of density and temperature in the nuclear medium in order to evaluate the importance of the final state blocking in the scattering process. We discuss qualitatively possible implications for opacities in stellar nuclear scenarios, where dark matter may be gravitationally accreted.