Project
Asteroseismic Tests of Stellar Evolution, Dark Matter, and the Gravitational Constant
The asteroseismic observations collected by space observatories like the NASA Kepler and TESS missions probe the conditions inside of bright nearby stars and thus facilitate tests to numerous fundamental theories. My proposal is to advance our knowledge of fundamental physics by making use of these observations to conduct three such tests: first, to assess whether the internal structures of these stars are in agreement with the predictions made by stellar evolution theory. Second, to perform a search for dark matter in the convective nuclear-burning cores of the more massive of these stars and place an upper bound on its abundance within stellar interiors. And third, to use the oscillations of these stars to measure the stability of the gravitational constant over the history of the Universe as well as spatially throughout the Milky Way. This will immediately place fundamental limits on String Theory, Brans–Dicke theory, and other theories of modified gravity that exist in competition with Einstein's theory of General Relativity.