2008/03/03 by R. A. García, R. A. Garcia, S. Mathur +1
Physics and Astronomy · #Astro and Planetary Science #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1007/s11207-008-9159-y
Accepted for publication in Solar Physics. 14 pages, 5 figures
arxiv created 2008/03/03 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/27 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Gravity modes are the best probes to infer the properties of the solar radiative zone, which represents 98% of the Sun’s total mass. It is usually assumed that high-frequency g modes give information about the structure of the solar interior whereas low-frequency g modes are more sensitive to the solar dynamics (the internal rotation). In this work, we develop a new methodology, based on the analysis of the almost constant separation of the dipole gravity modes, to introduce new constraints on the solar models. To validate this analysis procedure, several solar models – including different physical processes and either old or new chemical abundances (from, respectively, Grevesse and Noels (Origin and Evolution of the Elements 199, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 15, 1993) and Asplund, Grevesse, and Sauval (Cosmic Abundances as Records of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis CS-336, Astron. Soc. Pac., San Francisco, 25 – 38, 2005)) – have been compared to another model used as a reference. The analysis clearly shows that this methodology has enough sensitivity to distinguish among some of the models, in particular, among those with different compositions. The comparison of the models with the g-mode asymptotic signature detected in GOLF data favors the ones with old abundances. Therefore, the physics of the core – obtained through the analysis of the g-mode properties – is in agreement with the results obtained in the previous studies based on the acoustic modes, which are mostly sensitive to more external layers of the Sun.