Related papers: White Dwarfs constrain Dark Forces
The photospheres of the coolest helium-atmosphere white dwarfs are characterized by fluid-like densities. Under those conditions, standard approximations used in model atmosphere codes are no longer appropriate. Unfortunately, the majority…
Future CMB experiments have the potential to probe the density of relativistic species at the sub-percent level. Sensitivity at this level allows light thermal relics to be detected up to arbitrarily high decoupling temperatures.…
In the context of the standard model of particle physics, there is a definite upper limit to the density of stable compact stars. However, if there is a deeper layer of constituents, below that of quarks and leptons, stability may be…
In recent years brown dwarfs have been extended to a new Y-dwarf class with effective temperatures colder than 500K and masses in the range 5-30 Jupiter masses. They fill a crucial gap in observable atmospheric properties between the much…
We explore the spectral and atmospheric properties of brown dwarfs cooler than the latest known T dwarfs. Our focus is on the yet-to-be-discovered free-floating brown dwarfs in the \teff range from $\sim$800 K to $\sim$130 K and with masses…
Low mass white dwarfs are the remnants of disrupted red giant stars in binary millisecond pulsars and other exotic binary star systems. Some low mass white dwarfs cool rapidly, while others stay bright for millions of years due to stable…
White dwarfs with infrared excess emission provide a window into the late stages of stellar evolution and the dynamics of circumstellar environments. Using data from the Hobby-Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX), we…
Macroscopic dark matter -- "macros"-- refers to a broad class of alternative candidates to particle dark matter with still unprobed regions of parameter space. These candidates would transfer energy primarily through elastic scattering with…
The use of Reduced Proper Motion in identifying isolated white dwarfs has long been used as a proxy for the absolute magnitude in a population with known kinematics. This, however, introduces a proper motion detection limit on top of the…
We propose that the anomalously bright white dwarf luminosity function observed in NGC 6791 (Bedin et al 2005) is the consequence of the formation of 0.5 Msun white dwarfs with Helium cores instead of Carbon cores. This may happen if mass…
We summarize recent improvements in model atmosphere and internal structure of faint white dwarfs. We derive an analytical cooling theory which illustrates the effects of various physical processes on the energy budget and the cooling…
Physics beyond the Standard Model naturally gives rise to very light and weakly interacting particles, dubbed WISPs (Weakly Interacting Slim Particles). A prime example is the axion, that has eluded experimental detection for more than…
The recent discovery of microlensing of stars in the Large Magellanic Cloud has excited much interest in the nature of the lensing population. Detailed analyses indicate that the mass of these objects ranges from 0.3-0.8 solar masses,…
Axions are possible candidates of dark matter in the present Universe. They have been argued to form axionic boson stars with small masses $\sim 10^{-12}M_{\odot}$. Since they possess oscillating electric fields in a magnetic field, they…
It has been suggested that the internal dynamics of dwarf spheroidal galaxies (dSphs) can be used to test whether or not ultralight axions with $m_a\sim 10^{-22}\text{eV}$ are a preferred dark matter candidate. However, comparisons to…
We present the techniques and early results of our program to measure the luminosity function for White Dwarfs in the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey. Our survey covers over three quarters of the sky to a mean depth of I~19.2, and finds ~9,500…
Cosmology and astrophysics provide various ways to study the properties of dark matter even if they have negligible non-gravitational interactions with the Standard Model particles and remain hidden. We study a type of hidden dark matter…
The cold dark matter model successfully explains both the emergence and evolution of cosmic structures on large scales and, when we include a cosmological constant, the properties of the homogeneous and isotropic Universe. However, the cold…
White dwarfs are the fossils left by the evolution of low-and intermediate-mass stars, and have very long evolutionary timescales. This allows us to use them to explore the properties of old populations, like the Galactic halo. We present a…
For many years, astronomers have promised that the study of pulsating white dwarfs would ultimately lead to useful information about the physics of matter under extreme conditions of temperature and pressure. We can now make good on that…