The solar model problem resurrected

Abstract

The new solar composition, when applied to compute a model of the Sun, leads to serious disagreement between the predictions of the model and the observations obtained by helioseismology. New measurements of the coronal Ne/O abundance ratio in nearby stars using X-ray spectra typically find high values of Ne/O=0.4 rather than 0.15 normally adopted for the Sun. Drake & Testa (2005) suggest that this high Ne/O ratio is appropriate also for the Sun, which would bring the solar models back in agreement with the helioseismological observations. Here we present arguments why the high Ne/O ratio is unlikely to be applicable to the Sun.

Submitted to Nature as Brief Communications Arising following paper "The solar model problem solved by the abundance of neon in stars of the local cosmos" by Drake & Testa, Nature 436 (2005) 525-528 (astro-ph/0506182)