Seismic study of the chemical composition of the solar convection zone

TL;DR

This study explores how helioseismic inversion techniques can be used to estimate the Sun's heavy-element abundances, revealing that recent lower abundance estimates increase discrepancies with solar models.

Contribution

It introduces a method to determine solar heavy-element abundances using helioseismic data, providing an independent approach to existing spectroscopic methods.

Findings

Lower heavy-element abundances increase model discrepancies

Helioseismic inversion can probe individual element effects

Adiabatic index Gamma_1 is effective for abundance analysis

Abstract

Recent downward revision of solar heavy-element abundances using three-dimensional atmospheric model has introduced serious discrepancies between standard solar models and helioseismic inferences about solar structure. In this paper, we investigate the possibility of determining the heavy-element abundances using helioseismic inversion techniques with the hope of providing an independent estimate. We use the adiabatic index, Gamma_1 (logarithmic partial derivative of pressure with respect to density at constant entropy) as a probe to examine the effects of the total heavy-element abundance, as well as the effects due to the abundance of individual elements. Our inversion results show that the new, lower, abundance increases the discrepancy between the Sun and the solar models.