Can We Constrain the Solar Interior Physics Studying the Gravity-Mode Asymptotic Signature?

TL;DR

This study introduces a new method analyzing gravity-mode signatures to better constrain solar interior models, showing sensitivity to composition differences and favoring models with older chemical abundances.

Contribution

A novel methodology based on gravity-mode asymptotic signatures to distinguish between solar models with different physical processes and chemical compositions.

Findings

Method distinguishes models with different compositions.

Data favors models with older abundances.

Core physics aligns with previous acoustic mode studies.

Abstract

Gravity modes are the best probes to infer the properties of the solar radiative zone that 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. Cambridge, England, 199, 15, 1993) and Asplund, Grevesse, and Sauval (Astron. Soc. Pac. CS, San Francisco, 36, 25, 2005)) -- have been compared to another model used as a reference. The analysis clearly shows that this methodology has enough sensitivity to distinguish between some of the models, in particular, between 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 -- 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.