The effect of ionic correlations on radiative properties in the solar interior and terrestrial experiments

TL;DR

This paper investigates how ionic correlations affect solar opacity calculations, revealing significant uncertainties and proposing laboratory experiments to measure opacities at solar conditions, potentially resolving the solar opacity problem.

Contribution

It introduces detailed opacity calculations considering ionic structure effects and proposes a novel laboratory method to measure opacities at solar-like conditions.

Findings

Ionic correlations cause about 10% change in Rosseland opacity near the convection zone.

Approximately 15% difference in iron opacity measured at the Sandia Z facility.

Proposed laboratory method enables opacity measurements at previously unreachable solar conditions.

Abstract

Intending to solve the decade old problem of solar opacity, we report substantial photoabsorption uncertainty due to the effect of ion-ion correlations. By performing detailed opacity calculations of the solar mixture, we find that taking into account the ionic structure changes the Rosseland opacity near the convection zone by about 10%. We also report about 15% difference in the Rosseland opacity for iron, which was recently measured at the Sandia Z facility, where the temperature reached that prevailing in the convection zone boundary while the density is 2.5 times lower. Finally, we propose a method to measure opacities at solar temperatures and densities that were never reached in the past via laboratory radiation flow experiments, by using plastic foams doped with permilles of dominant photon absorbers in the Sun. The method is advantageous for an experimental study of solar opacities that may lead to a resolution of the solar problem.