Solar Neutrinos: Status and Prospects

Abstract

We describe the current status of solar neutrino measurements and of the theory—both neutrino physics and solar astrophysics—employed in interpreting measurements. Important recent developments include Super-Kamiokande's determination of the ν−e elastic scattering rate for 8B neutrinos to 3%; the latest Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) global analysis in which the inclusion of low-energy data from SNO I and II significantly narrowed the range of allowed values for the neutrino mixing angle θ12; Borexino results for both the 7Be and proton-electron-proton (pep) neutrino fluxes, the first direct measurements constraining the rate of proton-proton (pp) I and pp II burning in the Sun; global reanalyses of solar neutrino data that take into account new reactor results on θ13; a new decadal evaluation of the nuclear physics of the pp chain and CNO cycle defining best values and uncertainties in the nuclear microphysics input to solar models; recognition of an emerging discrepancy between two tests of solar metallicity, helioseismological mappings of the sound speed in the solar interior, and analyses of the metal photoabsorption lines based on our best current description of the Sun's photosphere; a new round of standard solar model calculations optimized to agree either with helioseismology or with the new photospheric analysis; and, motivated by the solar abundance problem, the development of nonstandard, accreting solar models, in order to investigate possible consequences of the metal segregation that occurred in the proto-solar disk. We review this progress and describe how new experiments such as SNO+ could help us further exploit neutrinos as a unique probe of stellar interiors.