Seismic inversion of the solar entropy: A case for improving the Standard Solar Model

Abstract

The Sun is the most constrained and well-studied of all stars. As a consequence, the physical ingredients entering solar models are used as a reference to study all other stars observed in the Universe. However, our understanding of the solar structure is still imperfect, as illustrated by the current debate on the heavy element abundances in the Sun. We wish to provide additional information on the solar structure by carrying out structural inversions of a new physical quantity, a proxy of the entropy of the solar plasma which properties are very sensitive to the temperature gradient below the convective zone. We use new structural kernels to carry out direct inversions of an entropy proxy of the solar plasma and compare the solar structure to various standard solar models built using various opacity tables and chemical abundances. We also link our results to classical tests commonly found in the literature. Our analysis allows us to probe more efficiently the uncertain regions of the solar models, just below the convective zone, paving the way for new in-depth analyses of the Sun taking into account additional physical uncertainties of solar models beyond the specific question of chemical abundances.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Solar structure and evolution
• Combining multiple structural inversions to constrain the Solar modelling problem
• Evolutionary models for ultracool dwarfs
• Higher metal abundances do not solve the solar problem
• Seismic modelling of early B-type pulsators observed by BRITE: I. $\theta$ Ophiuchi
• Extended atomic data for oxygen abundance analyses
• Seismic Solar Models from Ledoux discriminant inversions
• The ages of (the oldest) stars
• The solar abundance problem and eMSTOs in clusters
• Probing stellar cores from inversions of frequency separation ratios
• Investigating the impact of Solar Fusion III reaction rates on helioseismic constraints and solar neutrino fluxes