Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 809, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/809/2/141
Keywords
astroparticle physics; dense matter; elementary particles; neutrinos; stars: luminosity function, mass function; white dwarfs
Categories
Funding
- NASA [NAS5-26555]
- NASA/HST grants [GO-12971]
- NSF [AST-1211719]
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Canadian Foundation for Innovation
- British Columbia Knowledge Development Fund
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We present Hubble Space Telescope observations of the upper part (T-eff > 10(4) K) of the white dwarf cooling sequence in the globular cluster 47 Tucanae and measure a luminosity function of hot white dwarfs. Comparison with previous determinations from large-scale field surveys indicates that the previously determined plateau at high effective temperatures is likely a selection effect, as no such feature is seen in this sample. Comparison with theoretical models suggests that the current estimates of white dwarf neutrino emission (primarily by the plasmon channel) are accurate, and variations are restricted to no more than a factor of two globally, at 95% confidence. We use these constraints to place limits on various proposed exotic emission mechanisms, including a nonzero neutrino magnetic moment, formation of axions, and emission of Kaluza-Klein modes into extra dimensions.
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