Physics and Astronomy Calendar

Many theories of beyond Standard Model physics include new light, weakly-coupled particles, which can be challenging to search for experimentally. The high densities and temperatures in stellar cores allow them to produce such particles in large numbers, while the large volume to surface area ratio of stars enhances the relative effects of such production on stellar energy transfer and cooling. This makes stellar observations into a sensitive probe of new particles. I’ll describe how the plasma environment in stellar cores can parametrically alter the rates for these processes, and how this can significantly change the constraints and discovery potential for some new particle candidates. I’ll also discuss some other situations where in-medium effects are important in the search for weakly-coupled new physics.