2010/01/31 by Joyce Ann Guzik, Katie Mussack · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Abundance (ecology) #Accretion (finance) #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Convection #Convection zone #Helioseismology #Helium #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #Standard solar model #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #astro-ph.SR
paper · pdf · doi:10.1088/0004-637x/713/2/1108
Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal;Revised version that includes preliminary exploration of solar models using CO^5BOLD abundances and model with early main sequence mass loss
arxiv created 2010/02/23 · openalex publication_date 2010/03/30 · arxiv updated 2015/05/14 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Solar models using the new lower abundances of Asplund et al. or Caffau et al. do not agree as well with helioseismic inferences as models that use the higher Grevesse & Noels or Grevesse & Sauval abundances. Adopting the new abundances leads to models with sound-speed discrepancies of up to 1.4% below the base of the convection zone (CZ) compared to discrepancies of less than 0.4% with the old abundances; a CZ that is too shallow; and a CZ helium abundance that is too low. Here we briefly review recent attempts to restore agreement, and we evaluate three changes to the models: early mass loss, accretion of low- Z material, and convective overshoot. One goal of these attempts is to explore models that could preserve the structure in the interior obtained with the old abundances while accommodating the new abundances at the surface. Although the mass-losing and accretion models show some improvement in agreement with seismic constraints, a satisfactory resolution to the solar abundance problem remains to be found. In addition, we perform a preliminary analysis of models with the Caffau et al. abundances that shows that the sound-speed discrepancy is reduced to only about 0.6% at the CZ base, compared to 1.4% for the Asplund et al. abundances and 0.4% for the Grevesse & Noels abundances. Furthermore, including mass loss in models with the Caffau et al. abundances may improve sound-speed agreement and help resolve the solar lithium problem.