ABSTRACT
This paper focuses mainly on the neutrino puzzle and discusses the point of view that neutrinos and helioseismology are two complementary probes of the solar interior. We first analyze the physical differences noticed between already published solar models and their consequences for neutrino’predictions. Including improvements achieved in microscopic physics these last 3 years, we propose new results on the solar neutrino predictions and acoustic mode frequencies for l = 0–150, in the classical framework of stellar evolution. Doing so, we quantify the influence of precise composition, nuclear reaction rates, screening effect, and opacity calculations on both neutrino and acoustic mode frequency predictions. Our present predictions are 6.4 ± 1.4 SNU for the chlorine experiment, 4.4 ± 1.1 × 106 cm-2 s-1 for the water detector, and 122.5 ± 7 SNU for the gallium detector. Considering that the present experimental situation may support the hypothesis that neutrinos and helioseismology are both representative of the Sun, we then try to derive from the sound speed behavior an estimate of how the neutrino predictions may progress, including phenomena not yet simulated at present; we suggest that a correct description of the region located between the nuclear region and the convective zone justifies an increase of the 8B neutrino prediction by no more than 10%-15%, and that the nuclear reaction rates of the p-p chain should be revisited.
Subject headings: elementary particles — nuclear reactions, nucleosynthesis, abundances — Sun: interior
