Core mass at the helium flash from observations and a new bound on neutrino electromagnetic properties

Existing measurements of the bolometric magnitudes of the brightest red giants in 26 globular clusters are used to determine the brightness difference between the tip of the red giant branch (on average found to be 0.1 mag brighter than the brightest red giant) and RR Lyrae stars. The metallicity variation of the result agrees perfectly with theoretical predictions. In conjunction with previous determinations of the number ratio of horizontal-branch versus red giant stars, with statistical parallax determinations of RR Lyrae absolute luminosities, and with theoretical predictions based on the Sweigart and Gross evolutionary sequences, this result yields an allowed range for a hypothetical core mass variation relative to the standard results of (0.009 + or - 0.012) solar mass. If neutrinos had anomalous electromagnetic dipole moments, the increased energy loss near the helium flash would lead to an increased core mass. Constraints on neutrino electromagnetic properties are determined from the color-magnitude diagrams of the globular clusters.