Stars as cosmological tools: from dark matter to modified gravity
Speaker: Jordi Casanellas (Lisboa)
Time: 4.00 PM
Date: Wednesday November 14th 2012
Location: Mathematics Seminar Room, 1.01 Ag (First Floor, Agriculture Building, UCD Belfield)
Abstract:
The present accuracy in the modelling and observations of the Sun and other stars allows us to use them as laboratories of physics. In this talk I will first discuss how the capture of dark matter particles by low-mass stars influences the stellar properties, focusing on two strategies to detect these effects: the analysis of the stellar oscillations and the changes in the global appearance of a whole stellar cluster. A region of the DM parameter space was excluded using an asteroseismic analysis of Alpha Cen B. To conclude, I will show how a similar approach was successfully applied to put constraints on alternative theories of gravity, using the solar neutrinos and helioseismic data.
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