Crystallized white dwarf stars in scalar-tensor gravity

by Sofía Vidal (University of Tartu)

Friday 9 May 2025, 14:00 → 15:00 Europe/Budapest

Tanácsterem (III. ép.)

White dwarfs are the final evolutionary stage of stars with a mass lower than approximately ten solar masses, thus about 97% of the stars in the Milky Way, and in particular, our Sun. Even though their evolution is simple in comparison to other astrophysical objects, it involves several different physical processes under extreme conditions. Hence, they present a possibility to discover new phenomena and test current physical models, including gravity theories. In this talk I will give a brief introduction to scalar-tensor theory, followed by a discussion of white dwarf structure therein as well as differences to GR. The main part of the talk will focus on a toy model describing the cooling process that determines a white dwarf’s age. Finally, I will give an outlook on ongoing and possible future work.