Speaker
Seokhoon Yun
(IBS-CTPU-PTC)
Description
Red giants (RGs) efficiently capture dark matter (DM) through elastic scattering with stellar nuclei. Once accumulated in the helium core, the DM population can become self-gravitating and collapse, injecting energy through scattering and (when relevant) delayed annihilation. This localized heating can trigger a premature helium flash, reducing the luminosity at the tip of the RG branch. By requiring consistency with observed RG luminosities, we derive constraints on heavy DM, finding sensitivity to masses around $10^{11}$GeV and spin-independent cross sections near $10^{-37}$cm, comparable to leading direct-detection limits.
Primary author
Seokhoon Yun
(IBS-CTPU-PTC)
