On the seismic age of the Sun

Abstract

We use low-degree acoustic modes obtained by the BiSON to estimate the main-sequence age $t_{\odot }$ of the Sun. The calibration is accomplished by linearizing the deviations from a standard solar model the seismic frequencies of which are close to those of the Sun. Formally, we obtain the preliminary value $t_{\odot }=4.68\pm 0.02$Gy, coupled with an initial heavy-element abundance $Z=0.0169\pm 0.0005$. The quoted standard errors, which are not independent, are upper bounds implied under the assumption that the standard errors in the observed frequencies are independent.

6 pages, 4 figures, in Stancliffe R.J., Dewi J., Houdek G., Martin R.G., Tout C.A., eds, AIP Conf. Proc., Unsolved Problems in Stellar Physics. American Institute of Physics, Melville, in the press