Constraint on the magnetic dipole moment of neutrinos by the tip-RGB luminosity in ω-Centauri

In this work, we use models constructed with the Eggleton code for stellar evolution, along with the photometric data of the super-rich globular cluster ω-Centauri (Sollima et al., 2004), to put a constraint on the magnetic dipole moment of neutrinos. We begin with a review of the idea proposed by Raffelt and Dearborn (1988), in which, as a consequence of a non-zero magnetic dipole moment, the tip-RGB luminosity of low mass stars gets increased over its standard value. First, we measure the dependence of the He-core mass and bolometric luminosity, at the tip-RGB, on the existing fits to characterize plasmon decay into neutrinos, namely those from Itoh et al. (1992), Haft et al. (1994), and the more recent results from Kantor and Gushakov (2007). Then, stating our definition of the tip-RGB, we revise multiple theoretical aspects: the consequences of non-standard neutrino emission on the internal structure of stellar models, its impact on the calibration of the Reimers mass-loss rate and later evolutionary phases and the influence of initial Helium abundance, metallicity, convection theory and opacities. Finally, we consider the specific case of ω-Cen. Using our tip-RGB models, and the bolometric correction obtained by the PHOENIX code for stellar atmospheres, to estimate the luminosity for canonical and non-standard evolution, also measuring the impact of the reported chemical spread in ω-Cen on our results. We find that the upper limit μν≤2.2×10-12μB is already well constrained by observations. This result compares with the one obtained by Viaux et al. (2013), μν≤2.6×10-12μB, from photometric study of the globular cluster M5.