Stars as Laboratories for Fundamental Physics - MPP Theory Group

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Preface
scales that have been used for the purposes of particle astrophysics.
For each case the salient applications are summarized. Chapters 3−6
deal with the interaction of “radiation” (neutrinos, axions, other lowmass
bosons) with the main constituents of stellar plasmas (photons,
electrons, nucleons). In these chapters all information is pulled together
that pertains to the given interaction channel, even if it is not directly
related to the energy-loss argument. For example, in Chapter 5 the
limits on the electromagnetic coupling of pseudoscalars with photons
are summarized; the stellar energy-loss ones are the most restrictive
which justifies this arrangement.
Chapter 6 develops the topic of particle dispersion in media. The
medium-induced photon dispersion relation allows for the plasma process
γ → νν which yields the best limit on neutrino dipole moments
by virtue of the energy-loss argument applied to globular-cluster stars.
The neutrino dispersion relation is needed for the following discussion
of neutrino oscillations, establishing a link between the energy-loss argument
and the dispersion arguments of the following chapters.
Dispersion and propagation effects are particularly important for
massive neutrinos with flavor mixing. To this end the phenomenology
of massive, mixed neutrinos is introduced in Chapter 7. Vacuum and
matter-induced flavor oscillations as well as magnetically induced spin
oscillations are taken up in Chapter 8. If neutrinos are in thermal equilibrium
as in a young SN core or the early universe, neutrino oscillations
require a different theoretical treatment (Chapter 9).
Chapters 10−13 are devoted to astrophysical sources where neutrinos
have been measured, i.e. the Sun and supernovae (for the latter
only the SN 1987A signal exists). Neutrino oscillations, notably
of the matter-induced variety, play a prominent role in Chapter 10
(solar neutrinos) and Chapter 11 (SN neutrinos). Radiative particle
decays, especially of neutrinos, are studied in Chapter 12 where the
Sun and SN 1987A figure prominently as sources. In Chapter 13 the
particle-physics results from SN 1987A are summarized, including the
ones related to the energy-loss and other arguments.
Chapters 14−16 give particle-specific summaries. While axions play
a big role throughout this text, only the structure of the interaction
Hamiltonian with photons, electrons, and nucleons is needed. Thus
everything said about axions applies to any pseudoscalar low-mass boson
for which they serve as a generic example. In Chapter 14 these
results are interpreted in terms of axion-specific models which relate
their properties to those of the neutral pion and thus establish a nearly
unique relationship between their mass and interaction strength. Often-