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Axions and the RR Lyrae Period-Luminosity Relation

  • Jeremy Sakstein
  • Djuna Croon
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Abstract

We investigate the impact of axions on the period-luminosity relation (PLR) of RR Lyrae stars. During the red giant branch phase, emission through the electron coupling cools the core, increasing its mass at ignition. The larger core produces more luminous horizontal-branch stars, systematically shifting the zero point of the RR Lyrae PLR toward brighter magnitudes. We model the RR Lyrae population of the globular cluster M3 using stellar evolution and pulsation calculations tailored to its age and composition, and compare the resulting synthetic Ks-band PLR with observations. For α26≡ 1026gae2/4π=0.5, the axion-induced shift in the predicted PLR is comparable to the current uncertainty in the absolute M3 zero-point calibration.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@misc{sakstein2026axions,
  title = {{Axions and the RR Lyrae Period-Luminosity Relation}},
  author = {Jeremy Sakstein and Djuna Croon},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.27159},
  eprint = {2609.27159},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27159},
}
RIS
TY  - UNPB
TI  - Axions and the RR Lyrae Period-Luminosity Relation
AU  - Jeremy Sakstein
AU  - Djuna Croon
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/22
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.27159
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.27159
AB  - We investigate the impact of axions on the period-luminosity relation (PLR) of RR Lyrae stars. During the red giant branch phase, emission through the electron coupling cools the core, increasing its mass at ignition. The larger core produces more luminous horizontal-branch stars, systematically shifting the zero point of the RR Lyrae PLR toward brighter magnitudes. We model the RR Lyrae population of the globular cluster M3 using stellar evolution and pulsation calculations tailored to its age and composition, and compare the resulting synthetic K_s-band PLR with observations. For α_26≡ 10^26g_ae^2/4π=0.5, the axion-induced shift in the predicted PLR is comparable to the current uncertainty in the absolute M3 zero-point calibration.
ER  -