Constraining axion-like particles using the white dwarf initial-final mass relation

Understand

Axion-like particles (ALPs), a class of pseudoscalars common to many extensions of the Standard Model, have the capacity to drain energy from the interiors of stars.

• Consequently, stellar evolution can be used to derive many constraints on ALPs.
• We study the influence that keV-MeV scale ALPs which interact exclusively with photons can exert on the helium-burning shells of asymptotic giant branch stars, the late-life evolutionary phase of stars with initial masses less than $8M_{\odot}$.
• We establish the sensitivity of the final stellar mass to such energy-loss for ALPs with masses currently permitted by stellar evolution bounds.