Related papers: Constraining Dark Photons with Self-consistent Sim…
Dark photons are particles invoked in some extensions of the Standard Model which could account for at least part of the dark matter content of the Universe. It has been proposed that the production of dark photons in stellar interiors…
We improve the current upper bound on the axion-photon coupling derived from stellar evolution using the $R_2$ parameter, the ratio of stellar populations on the Asymptotic Giant Branch to Horizontal Branch in Globular Clusters. We compare…
Dark photons, a generic class of light gauge bosons that interact with the Standard Model (SM) exclusively through kinetic mixing, arise naturally in many gauge extensions of the SM. Motivated by these theoretical considerations, we present…
Generic constraints on dark photons are generally presented assuming they have Stueckelberg masses. These constraints are strengthened if instead the mass is due to the Higgs mechanism and the dark Higgs is light. First, we show that under…
Light dark photons are subject to various plasma effects, such as Debye screening and resonant oscillations, which can lead to a more complex cosmological evolution than is experienced by conventional cold dark matter candidates.…
We present the results of a set of N-body simulations aimed at exploring how the process of mass segregation (as traced by the spatial distribution of blue straggler stars, BSSs) is affected by the presence of a population of heavy dark…
The evolution of AGB stars is notoriously complex. The confrontation of AGB population models with observed stellar populations is a useful alternative to the detailed study of individual stars in efforts to converge towards a reliable…
The resonant conversion, within the inter-galactic medium, of regular photons into dark photons amplifies the anisotropy observed in the CMB, thereby imposing stringent constraints on the existence of light dark photons. In this study, we…
The integrated properties of young star clusters are subject to large cluster-to-cluster variations because they depend directly on small numbers of bright stars. At ages at which red supergiants are expected to exist, these luminous but…
Compact astrophysical systems such as neutron stars and black holes provide powerful laboratories for testing feebly coupled dark photons (DPs). We investigate light DPs kinetically mixed with the visible photon that need not be the dark…
Recent observations indicate that in some Milky Way globular clusters (GCs) pristine red giant branch (RGB) stars appear more centrally concentrated than enriched ones. This contradicts most multiple stellar population (MSP) formation…
A dark photon may kinetically mix with the ordinary photon, inducing oscillations with observable imprints on cosmology. Oscillations are resonantly enhanced if the dark photon mass equals the ordinary photon plasma mass, which tracks the…
It is currently impossible to determine the abundances and ages of the stellar populations of distant, dense stellar systems star by star. Therefore, methods to analyze the composite light of stellar systems are required. I review the…
We investigate the relationship between the mass of a globular cluster core and the sizes of its various stellar populations in a sample of 56 globular clusters. The number of core red giant branch stars is found to scale sub-linearly with…
A popular self--enrichment scenario for the formation of globular clusters assumes that the abundance anomalies shown by the stars in many clusters are due to a second stage of star formation occurring from the matter lost by the winds of…
We simulate deep images from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) using semi-empirical models of galaxy formation with only a few basic assumptions and parameters. We project our simulations all the way to the observational domain, adding…
We have calculated synthetic spectra for typical chemical element mixtures (i.e., a standard alpha-enhanced distribution, and distributions displaying CN and ONa anticorrelations) found in the various subpopulations harboured by Galactic…
We investigate cosmological and astrophysical constraints on dark photons with masses $\sim 10^{-1}$-$10^3$ MeV. These dark photons can be copiously produced either in the early universe or during core-collapse supernovae, potentially…
Sizeable number of stellar-mass black holes (BHs) in globular clusters (GCs) can strongly influence the dynamical evolution and observational properties of their host cluster. Using results from a large set of numerical simulations, we…
Globular clusters (GCs) are fundamental for understanding the integrated light of old stellar populations and galaxy assembly processes. However, the role of hot, evolved stars, such as horizontal branch (HB), extreme HB, and blue…