Constraining dark photon properties with Asteroseismology

Understand

Dark photons are particles invoked in some extensions of the Standard Model which could account for at least part of the dark matter content of the Universe.

• It has been proposed that the production of dark photons in stellar interiors could happen at a rate that depends on both, the dark photon mass and its coupling to Standard Model particles (the kinetic mixing parameter $\chi$).
• In this work we aim at exploring the impact of dark photon productions in the stellar core of solar mass RGB stars during late evolutionary phases.
• We demonstrate that near the so-called RGB bump, dark photons production may be an energy sink for the star sufficiently significative to modify the extension of the star convective zones.