相关论文: Axions and the white dwarf luminosity function

White dwarfs are the end-product of the lifes of intermediate- and low-mass stars and their evolution is described as a simple cooling process. Recently, it has been possible to determine with an unprecedented precision their luminosity…

It has been shown that the shape of the luminosity function of white dwarfs can be a powerful tool to check for the possible existence of DFSZ-axions. In particular, Isern et al. (2008) showed that, if the axion mass is of the order of a…

The evolution of white dwarfs is a simple gravothermal process of cooling. Since the shape of their luminosity function is sensitive to the characteristic cooling time, it is possible to use its slope to test the existence of additional…

Axions are the natural consequence of the introduction of the Peccei-Quinn symmetry to solve the strong CP problem. All the efforts to detect such elusive particles have failed up to now. Nevertheless, it has been recently shown that the…

The evolution of white dwarfs is a simple gravothermal process. This process can be tested in two ways, through the luminosity function of these stars and through the secular variation of the period of pulsation of those stars that are…

White dwarfs are almost completely degenerate objects that cannot obtain energy from thermonuclear sources, so their evolution is just a gravothermal cooling process. Recent improvements in the accuracy and precision of the luminosity…

The white dwarf luminosity function, which provides information about their cooling, has been measured with high precision in the past few years. Simulations that include well known Standard Model physics give a good fit to the data. This…

It has been shown that the shape of the luminosity function of white dwarfs (WDLF) is a powerful tool to check for the possible existence of DFSZ-axions, a proposed but not yet detected type of weakly interacting particles. With the aim of…

The shape of the luminosity function of white dwarfs (WDLF) is sensitive to the characteristic cooling time and, therefore, it can be used to test the existence of additional sources or sinks of energy such as those predicted by alternative…

The Peccei-Quinn mechanism proposed to solve the CP problem of Quantum Chromodynamics has as consequence the existence of axions, hypothetical weakly interacting particles whose mass is constrained to be on the sub-eV range. If these…

The axion, a well-motivated hypothetical particle arising in extensions of the Standard Model, can be produced copiously within the hot, compact cores of white dwarf stars. The shape of the white dwarf luminosity function (WDLF) is a…

White dwarfs are almost completely degenerate objects that cannot obtain energy from the thermonuclear sources and their evolution is just a gravothermal process of cooling. The simplicity of these objects, the fact that the physical inputs…

We explore consequences of the idea that the cooling speed of white dwarfs can be interpreted in terms of axion emission. In this case the Yukawa coupling to electrons has to be g_{ae} 10^-13, corresponding to an axion mass of a few meV.…

We analyse the cooling of white dwarfs in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae to look for evidence of axion emission affecting the rate of white dwarf cooling. If axions exist and couple to electrons, then axions could be produced at an…

White dwarfs are the final remnants of low- and intermediate-mass stars. Their evolution is essentially a cooling process that lasts for $\sim 10$ Gyr. Their observed properties provide information about the history of the Galaxy, its dark…

The evolution of white dwarfs is essentially a gravothermal process of cooling in which the basic ingredients for predicting their evolution are well identified, although not always well understood. There are two independent ways to test…

The evolution of white dwarfs is a simple gravothermal process. This means that their luminosity function, i.e. the number of white dwarfs per unit bolometric magnitude and unit volume as a function of bolometric magnitude, is a…

Pulsating white dwarfs with hydrogen-rich atmospheres, also known as DAV stars, can be used as astrophysical laboratories to constrain the properties of fundamental particles like axions. Comparing the measured cooling rates of these stars…

We considered recently as a new axion production mechanism the process $e^- \to e^- +a$ in a strong magnetic field $B$. Requiring that for a strongly magnetized neutron star the axion luminosity is smaller than the neutrino luminosity we…

The luminosity function of white dwarfs is a powerful tool for studies of the evolution and formation of the Milky Way. The (theoretical) white dwarf cooling sequence provides a useful indicator of the evolutionary time scales involved in…