Helioseismic Tests of Radiative Opacities.

Conference · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2002

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1516310· OSTI ID:976163

Guzik, J A ^[1]; Neuforge, C M ^[2]; Keady, J J; Magee, N H ^[3]; Bradley, P A ^[4]

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1. Joyce Ann
2. Corinne M.
3. Norman H.
4. Paul A.

During the past fifteen years, thousands of solar acoustic oscillation modes have been measured to remarkable precision, in many cases to within 0.01%. These frequencies have been used to infer the interior structure of the sun and test the physical input to solar models. Here we summarize the procedures, input physics and assumptions for calculating a standard solar evolution model. We compare the observed and calculated sound speed profile and oscillation frequencies of solar models calibrated using the new Los Alamos LEDCOP and Livermore OPAL Rosseland mean opacities for the same element mixture. We show that solar oscillations are extremely sensitive to opacities, with opacity differences of only a few percent producing an easily detectable effect on the sound speed and predicted frequencies. The oscillation data indicate that agreement would be improved by an opacity increase of several percent below the convection zone for both the LEDCOP and OPAL opacities.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE
• OSTI ID: 976163
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-02-2493
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ACCURACY
ACOUSTICS
CONVECTION
OPACITY
OSCILLATION MODES
OSCILLATIONS
PHYSICS
STAR MODELS
SUN
VELOCITY