Alex Howe has just had a paper accepted by Physical Review D studying the astrophysics of alternate universes without a weak interaction (“weakless universes”), along with Evan Grohs and Fred Adams. In such universes, neutrons are stable, and beta decay, the proton-proton chain, and core-collapse supernovae do not occur. Nonetheless, stars, planets, and all of the necessary ingredients for life as we know it can form in such a universe. To directly view the preprint, check out this link: https://arxiv.org/abs/1801.06081

Comparison of the Main Sequence on the H-R diagram in universes including our universe (black triangles) and a weakless universe (black circles).