Limits on the proton-proton reaction cross-section from helioseismology

Abstract

Primary inversions of solar oscillation frequencies coupled with the equations of thermal equilibrium and other input physics, enable us to infer the temperature and hydrogen abundance profiles inside the Sun. These profiles also help in setting constraints on the input physics that is consistent with the accurately measured oscillation frequencies data. Helioseismic limits on the cross-section of proton-proton nuclear reaction as a function of heavy element abundance in the solar core are derived. We demonstrate that it is not possible to infer the heavy element abundance profile, in addition to temperature and hydrogen abundance profiles, with the helioseismic constraints.