2003/12/31 by D. E. Winget, D. J. Sullivan, T. S. Metcalfe +2 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Computational Physics and Python Applications #Neutrino Physics Research #Particle physics theoretical and experimental studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/382591
published as Astrophys.J. 602 (2004) L109-L112 · 4 pages emulateapj, 3 figures, accepted for ApJ Letters
arxiv created 2004/01/09 · openalex publication_date 2004/02/05 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
We demonstrate that plasmon neutrinos are the dominant form of energy loss in model white dwarf stars down to T eff ~ 25,000 K, depending on the stellar mass. The lower end of this range overlaps the observed temperatures for the V777 Her star (DBV) instability strip. The evolution of white dwarfs at these temperatures is driven predominantly by cooling, so this directly affects the stellar evolutionary timescale in proportion to the ratio of the neutrino energy loss to the photon energy loss. This evolutionary timescale is observable through the time rate of change of the pulsation periods. Although the unified electroweak theory of lepton interactions that is crucial for understanding neutrino production has been well tested in the high-energy regime, the approach presented here should result in an interesting low-energy test of the theory. We discuss observational strategies to achieve this goal.