Asteroseismic Constraints on the Neutrino Magnetic Dipole Moment

CÓRSICO, A. H.; L. G. ALTHAUS; M. M. MILLER BERTOLAMI; KEPLER, S. O.; E. GARCIA-BERRO

Montreal

Congreso; 19th European White Dwarf Workshop.; 2014

 Pulsating white dwarf (WD) stars can be used as astrophysical laborato-ries to constrain the properties of weakly interacting particles. Comparing the coolingrates of these stars with the expected values from theoretical models allows us to searchfor additional sources of cooling due to the emission of axions, neutralinos, or neutrinoswith magnetic dipole moment. In this work, we derive an upper bound to the neutrinomagnetic dipole moment (μν) using an estimate of the rate of period change of the pul-sating DB WD star PG 1351+489. Our models suggest the existence of some additionalcooling in this pulsating DB WD, consistent with a non-zero magnetic dipole momentwith an upper limit of μν 10−11μB.