Abstract
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.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Andersen, B.N.: 1996, Theoretical amplitudes of solar g-modes. Astron. Astrophys. 312, 610 – 614.
Appourchaux, T., Fröhlich, C., Andersen, B., Berthomieu, G., Chaplin, W.J., Elsworth, Y., Finsterle, W., Gough, D.O., Hoeksema, J.T., Isaak, G.R., Kosovichev, A.G., Provost, J., Scherrer, P.H., Sekii, T., Toutain, T.: 2000, Observational upper limits to low-degree solar g-modes. Astrophys. J. 538, 401 – 414. doi:10.1086/309124.
Asplund, M., Grevesse, N., Sauval, A.J.: 2005, The solar chemical composition. In: Barnes, T.G. III, Bash, F.N. (eds.) Cosmic Abundances as Records of Stellar Evolution and Nucleosynthesis CS-336, Astron. Soc. Pac., San Francisko, 25 – 38.
Bahcall, J.N., Serenelli, A.M., Basu, S.: 2005, New solar opacities, abundances, helioseismology, and neutrino fluxes. Astrophys. J. 621, L85 – L88. doi:10.1086/428929.
Basu, S., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Chaplin, W.J., Elsworth, Y., Isaak, G.R., New, R., Schou, J., Thompson, M.J., Tomczyk, S.: 1997, Solar internal sound speed as inferred from combined BiSON and LOWL oscillation frequencies. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 292, 243.
Basu, S., Chaplin, W.J., Elsworth, Y., New, R., Serenelli, A.M., Verner, G.A.: 2007, Solar abundances and helioseismology: Fine-structure spacings and separation ratios of low-degree p-modes. Astrophys. J. 655, 660 – 671. doi:10.1086/509820.
Brun, A.S., Turck-Chièze, S., Zahn, J.P.: 1999, Standard solar models in the light of new helioseismic constraints. II. Mixing below the convective zone. Astrophys. J. 525, 1032 – 1041. doi:10.1086/307932.
Chaplin, W.J., Elsworth, Y., Isaak, G.R., Marchenkov, K.I., Miller, B.A., New, R.: 2001, Rigid rotation of the solar core? On the reliable extraction of low-l rotational p-mode splittings from full-disc observations of the Sun. Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc. 327, 1127 – 1136. doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2001.04805.x.
Chaplin, W.J., Serenelli, A.M., Basu, S., Elsworth, Y., New, R., Verner, G.A.: 2007, Solar heavy-element abundance: constraints from frequency separation ratios of low-degree p-modes. Astrophys. J. 670, 872 – 884. doi:10.1086/522578.
Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Gough, D.O., Thompson, M.J.: 1991, The depth of the solar convection zone. Astrophys. J. 378, 413 – 437. doi:10.1086/170441.
Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Dappen, W., Ajukov, S.V., Anderson, E.R., Antia, H.M., Basu, S., Baturin, V.A., Berthomieu, G., Chaboyer, B., Chitre, S.M., Cox, A.N., Demarque, P., Donatowicz, J., Dziembowski, W.A., Gabriel, M., Gough, D.O., Guenther, D.B., Guzik, J.A., Harvey, J.W., Hill, F., Houdek, G., Iglesias, C.A., Kosovichev, A.G., Leibacher, J.W., Morel, P., Proffitt, C.R., Provost, J., Reiter, J., Rhodes, E.J. Jr., Rogers, F.J., Roxburgh, I.W., Thompson, M.J., Ulrich, R.K.: 1996, The current state of solar modeling. Science 272, 1286 – 1292.
Couvidat, S., Turck-Chièze, S., Kosovichev, A.G.: 2003, Solar seismic models and the neutrino predictions. Astrophys. J. 599, 1434 – 1448. doi:10.1086/379604.
Couvidat, S., García, R.A., Turck-Chièze, S., Corbard, T., Henney, C.J., Jiménez-Reyes, S.: 2003, The rotation of the deep solar layers. Astrophys. J. 597, L77 – L79. doi:10.1086/379698.
Domingo, V., Fleck, B., Poland, A.I.: 1995, The SOHO mission: an overview. Solar Phys. 162, 1 – 37.
Elsworth, Y.P., Baudin, F., Chaplin, W., Andersen, B., Appourchaux, T., Boumier, P., Broomhall, A.M., Corbard, T., Finsterle, W., Fröhlich, C., Gabriel, A., García, R.A., Gough, D.O., Grec, G., Jiménez, A., Kosovichev, A., Provost, J., Sekii, T., Toutain, T., Turck-Chièze, S.: 2006, The internal structure of the Sun inferred from g modes and low-frequency p modes. In: Fletcher, K., Thompson, M. (eds.) Proceedings of SOHO 18/GONG 2006/HELAS I, Beyond the spherical Sun SP-624, ESA, Noordwijk, 18.
Gabriel, A.H., Grec, G., Charra, J., Robillot, J.M., Cortés, T.R., Turck-Chièze, S., Bocchia, R., Boumier, P., Cantin, M., Céspedes, E., Cougrand, B., Cretolle, J., Dame, L., Decaudin, M., Delache, P., Denis, N., Duc, R., Dzitko, H., Fossat, E., Fourmond, J.J., García, R.A., Gough, D., Grivel, C., Herreros, J.M., Lagardere, H., Moalic, J.P., Pallé, P.L., Petrou, N., Sanchez, M., Ulrich, R., van der Raay, H.B.: 1995, Global oscillations at low frequency from the SOHO mission (GOLF). Solar Phys. 162, 61 – 99.
Gabriel, A.H., Baudin, F., Boumier, P., García, R.A., Turck-Chièze, S., Appourchaux, T., Bertello, L., Berthomieu, G., Charra, J., Gough, D.O., Pallé, P.L., Provost, J., Renaud, C., Robillot, J.M., Roca Cortés, T., Thiery, S., Ulrich, R.K.: 2002, A search for solar g modes in the GOLF data. Astron. Astrophys. 390, 1119 – 1131. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20020695.
García, R.A., Turck-Chièze, S., Boumier, P., Robillot, J.M., Bertello, L., Charra, J., Dzitko, H., Gabriel, A.H., Jiménez-Reyes, S.J., Pallé, P.L., Renaud, C., Roca Cortés, T., Ulrich, R.K.: 2005, Global solar Doppler velocity determination with the GOLF/SoHO instrument. Astron. Astrophys. 442, 385 – 395. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20052779.
García, R.A., Turck-Chièze, S., Jiménez-Reyes, S.J., Ballot, J., Pallé, P.L., Eff-Darwich, A., Mathur, S., Provost, J.: 2007, Tracking solar gravity modes: the dynamics of the solar core. Science 316, 1591 – 1593. doi:10.1126/science.1140598.
Grevesse, N., Noels, A.: 1993, Cosmic abundances of the elements. In: Prantzos, N., Vangioni-Flam, E., Casse, M. (eds.) Origin and Evolution of the Elements 199, Cambridge, England, 15 – 25.
Guzik, J.A., Watson, L.S., Cox, A.N.: 2005, Can enhanced diffusion improve helioseismic agreement for solar models with revised abundances? Astrophys. J. 627, 1049 – 1056. doi:10.1086/430438.
Howe, R., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Hill, F., Komm, R.W., Larsen, R.M., Schou, J., Thompson, M.J., Toomre, J.: 2000, Dynamic variations at the base of the solar convection zone. Science 287, 2456 – 2460.
Kumar, P., Quataert, E.J., Bahcall, J.N.: 1996, Observational searches for solar g-modes: some theoretical considerations. Astrophys. J. 458, L83 – L85. doi:10.1086/309926.
Mathur, S.: 2007, A la recherche des modes de gravité: étude de la dynamique du coeur solaire. Ph.D. thesis, Université Paris XI Orsay.
Mathur, S., Turck-Chièze, S., Couvidat, S., García, R.A.: 2007, On the characteristics of the solar gravity mode frequencies. Astrophys. J. 668, 594 – 602. doi:10.1086/521187.
Michaud, G., Proffitt, C.R.: 1993, Particle transport processes. In: Weiss, W.W., Baglin, A. (eds.) IAU Colloq. 137: Inside the Stars CS-40, Astron. Soc. Pac., San Francisco, 246 – 259.
Morel, P.: 1997, CESAM: A code for stellar evolution calculations. Astron. Astrophys. Suppl. 124, 597 – 614.
Morel, P., Provost, J., Berthomieu, G.: 1997, Updated solar models. Astron. Astrophys. 327, 349 – 360.
Press, W.H., Teukolsky, S.A., Vetterling, W.T., Flannery, B.P.: 1992, Numerical Recipes in FORTRAN. The Art of Scientific Computing, 2nd edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Provost, J., Berthomieu, G.: 1986, Asymptotic properties of low degree solar gravity modes. Astron. Astrophys. 165, 218 – 226.
Spiegel, E.A., Zahn, J.P.: 1992, The solar tachocline. Astron. Astrophys. 265, 106 – 114.
Tassoul, M.: 1980, Asymptotic approximations for stellar nonradial pulsations. Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. 43, 469 – 490. doi:10.1086/190678.
Thompson, M.J., Toomre, J., Anderson, E., Antia, H.M., Berthomieu, G., Burtonclay, D., Chitre, S.M., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Corbard, T., Derosa, M., Genovese, C.R., Gough, D.O., Haber, D.A., Harvey, J.W., Hill, F., Howe, R., Korzennik, S.G., Kosovichev, A.G., Leibacher, J.W., Pijpers, F.P., Provost, J., Rhodes, E.J., Schou, J., Sekii, T., Stark, P.B., Wilson, P.: 1996, Differential rotation and dynamics of the solar interior. Science 272, 1300 – 1305.
Thompson, M.J., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., Miesch, M.S., Toomre, J.: 2003, The internal rotation of the Sun. Annu. Rev. Astron. Astrophys. 41, 599 – 643. doi:10.1146/annurev.astro.41.011802.094848.
Turck-Chièze, S., Couvidat, S., Kosovichev, A.G., Gabriel, A.H., Berthomieu, G., Brun, A.S., Christensen-Dalsgaard, J., García, R.A., Gough, D.O., Provost, J., Roca-Cortés, T., Roxburgh, I.W., Ulrich, R.K.: 2001, Solar neutrino emission deduced from a seismic model. Astrophys. J. 555, L69 – L73. doi:10.1086/321726.
Turck-Chièze, S., Couvidat, S., Piau, L., Ferguson, J., Lambert, P., Ballot, J., García, R.A., Nghiem, P.: 2004a, Surprising Sun: a new step towards a complete picture? Phys. Rev. Lett. 93(21), 211102-1 – 211102-4. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.211102.
Turck-Chièze, S., García, R.A., Couvidat, S., Ulrich, R.K., Bertello, L., Varadi, F., Kosovichev, A.G., Gabriel, A.H., Berthomieu, G., Brun, A.S., Lopes, I., Pallé, P., Provost, J., Robillot, J.M., Roca Cortés, T.: 2004b, Looking for gravity-mode multiplets with the GOLF experiment aboard SOHO. Astrophys. J. 604, 455 – 468. doi:10.1086/381743.
Zaatri, A., Provost, J., Berthomieu, G., Morel, P., Corbard, T.: 2007, Sensitivity of low degree oscillations to the change in solar abundances. Astron. Astrophys. 469, 1145 – 1149. doi:10.1051/0004-6361:20077212.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Helioseismology, Asteroseismology, and MHD Connections
Guest Editors: Laurent Gizon and Paul Cally.
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0 ), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
García, R.A., Mathur, S. & Ballot, J. Can We Constrain Solar Interior Physics by Studying the Gravity-Mode Asymptotic Signature?. Sol Phys 251, 135–147 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-008-9159-y
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11207-008-9159-y