Solar neutrinos and solar oscillations

Abstract

For solar neutrino measurements to contribute directly to particle physics it is essential that we know the structure of the Sun. Only then can we be sure both of the conditions under which the neutrinos are produced and of the state of the material through which they must pass before arriving at the detectors on Earth. Solar oscillations play at least one, and possibly two important roles: firstly, as passive carriers of information about density and sound speed, they provide important diagnostic information which has been used to set quite stringent constraints on the structure of the Sun’s interior; secondly, as active participants in the dynamics of the solar core, it is not out of the question that they induce motion that influences substantially the rates of the various thermonuclear reactions that em it the neutrinos. The basic processes of seismic inference will be discussed briefly, followed by a summary of those inferences that have a bearing on neutrino production. Finally, some of the uncertainties in our understanding of the Sun’s interior will be aired, to restrain the temptation to accept too hastily the details of the simple hydrostatic classical models of the Sun.