White dwarfs as a probe of exceptionally light QCD axions

We study the effects of exceptionally light QCD axions on the stellar configuration of white dwarfs. At finite baryon density, the nonderivative coupling of the axion to nucleons displaces the axion from its in-vacuum minimum, which implies a reduction of the nucleon mass. This dramatically alters the composition of stellar remnants. In particular, the modifications of the mass-radius relationship of white dwarfs allow us to probe large regions of unexplored parameter space without requiring that axions are dark matter.