In order to characterize how dark matter ( DM ) annihilation inside stars changes the aspect of a stellar cluster we computed the evolution until the ignition of the He burning of stars from 0.7 M _ { \odot } to 3.5 M _ { \odot } within halos of DM with different characteristics .
We found that , when a cluster is surrounded by a dense DM halo , the positions of the cluster ’ stars in the H-R diagram have a brighter and hotter turn-off point than in the classical scenario without DM , therefore giving the cluster a younger appearance .
The high DM densities required to produce these effects are expected only in very specific locations , such as near the center of our Galaxy .
In particular , if DM is formed by the 8 GeV WIMPs recently invoked to reconcile the results from direct detection experiments , then this signature is predicted for halos of DM with a density \rho _ { \chi } = 3 \cdot 10 ^ { 5 } GeV cm ^ { -3 } .
A DM density gradient inside the stellar cluster would result in a broader main sequence , turn-off and red giant branch regions .
Moreover , we found that for very high DM halo densities the bottom of the isochrones in the H-R diagram rises to higher luminosities , leading to a characteristic signature on the stellar cluster .
We argue that this signature could be used to indirectly probe the presence of DM particles in the location of a cluster .