Abstract
We consider the contribution to stellar energy loss that would result from the existence of a recently proposed very-low-mass (≲1 eV) axion. We calculate the energy loss rate of hydrogen-burning stars and of red giants from very-light-axion production through the Primakoff process. The result is an upper bound of about eV on the mass of such a particle. We also consider briefly the cosmic background produced by the decay products of primordial axions, and the possibility of laboratory measurements of the long-range force a low-mass pseudoscalar boson would create.
- Received 26 December 1979
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.22.839
©1980 American Physical Society