Hunting the Dark: Hierarchical Inference of Dark Matter in Neutron Stars through Gravitational Waves from Binary Neutron Star Mergers

There is a growing interest in using various astrophysical phenomena to search for dark matter signatures, with gravitational waves emerging as a promising tool. In particular, dark matter contamination within neutron stars can significantly alter their tidal deformability, offering a potential observable effect during compact object mergers. In this work, we aim to infer the presence of bosonic dark matter in neutron stars through a fully Bayesian parameter estimation analysis, applied to populations of binary neutron star mergers observed in current and future generation of gravitational wave detectors. Additionally, we demonstrate how the dark matter cross-section and mass can be inferred in a hierarchical framework, offering insights into the nature of dark matter in these extreme environments.