Light bosons and photospheric solutions to the solar abundance problem
It is well known that current spectroscopic determinations of the chemical composition of the Sun are starkly at odds with the metallicity implied by helioseismology. We investigate whether the discrepancy may be due to conversion of photons to a new light boson in the solar photosphere. We examine the impact of particles with axion-like interactions with the photon on the inferred photospheric abundances, showing that resonant axion-photon conversion is not possible in the region of the solar atmosphere in which line-formation occurs. Although non-resonant conversion in the line-forming regions can in principle impact derived abundances, constraints from axion-photon conversion experiments…
Thermal conduction by dark matter with velocity and momentum-dependent cross-sections
We use the formalism of Gould and Raffelt to compute the dimensionless thermal conduction coefficients for scattering of dark matter particles with standard model nucleons via cross-sections that depend on the relative velocity or momentum exchanged between particles. Motivated by models invoked to reconcile various recent results in direct detection, we explicitly compute the conduction coefficients $\alpha$ and $\kappa$ for cross-sections that go as $v_{\rm rel}^2$, $v_{\rm rel}^4$, $v_{\rm rel}^{-2}$, $q^2$, $q^4$ and $q^{-2}$, where $v_{\rm rel}$ is the relative DM-nucleus velocity and $q$ is the momentum transferred in the collision. We find that a $v_{\rm rel}^{-2}$ dependence can sig…
Light bosons in the photosphere and the solar abundance problem
Spectroscopy is used to measure the elemental abundances in the outer layers of the Sun, whereas helioseismology probes the interior. It is well known that current spectroscopic determinations of the chemical composition are starkly at odds with the metallicity implied by helioseismology. We investigate whether the discrepancy may be due to conversion of photons to a new light boson in the solar photosphere. We examine the impact of particles with axion-like interactions with the photon on the inferred photospheric abundances, showing that resonant axion-photon conversion is not possible in the region of the solar atmosphere in which line formation occurs. Although non-resonant conversion i…