Exploring the robustness of stellar cooling constraints on light particles

Understand

Stellar cooling arguments place strict restrictions on a wide variety of models of new physics.

• In this paper, we argue that mechanisms to evade these constraints are restricted by thermodynamic arguments, then present a minimal model extension that allows new particles to evade all stellar constraints.
• In doing this, we demonstrate that interesting parameter space can be reopened, using the EDGES signal and Xenon1T excess as examples.
• This mechanism highlights the importance of laboratory experiments in a well-controlled environment to search for new physics, complementary to astrophysical searches.