Helioseismology and solar neutrinos

TL;DR

This paper reviews the historical and scientific relationship between helioseismology and solar neutrino studies, highlighting how combined observations have advanced understanding of the solar core and neutrino physics.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive historical overview of how helioseismology and neutrino research have jointly contributed to solar physics and neutrino physics understanding.

Findings

Helioseismology supported the standard solar model.

Neutrino observations confirmed neutrino oscillations.

Combined data improved knowledge of the solar core.

Abstract

The studies of solar neutrinos and helioseismology have been closely intertwined since the first neutrino experiment and the first observations of solar oscillations in the sixties. Early detailed helioseismic analyses provided strong support for the standard solar model and hence a clear indication that the solution to the discrepancy between the predicted and observed neutrino fluxes had to be found in terms of neutrino physics, as now fully confirmed by direct observations. With the full characterization of neutrino properties we are now in a position to combine neutrino observations and helioseismology to obtain a more complete understanding of conditions in the solar core. Here I provide a personal and largely historical overview of these developments.