Constraints on the light axion of Dine, Fischler, and Srednicki are critically reexamined and upper bounds on its mass are derived from stars at various stages of evolution. A conservative upper bound for the axion mass is about 1 eV, while a model-dependent argument gives a better upper bound of mass ∼0.07 eV. The same argument also applies to coupling of any massless pseudoscalar particle to electrons giving an upper bound of $\left|g_e\right|<\mathrm{}1\mathrm{}\times {10}^{-11\mathrm{}}$.

• Received 24 May 1982

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.26.1840