Helioseismic test of stellar convection theories

Abstract

Using the observed frequencies of solar p-modes an attempt is made to compare models using the usual mixing length theory (MLT) and the formulation of Canuto and Mazzitelli (CM) for calculating the convective flux. It is found that solar models which use the CanutoMazzitelli formulation for calculating the convective flux give significantly better agreement with observations than models constructed using the mixing length formalism. This inference can be drawn from the scaled frequency differences as well as from the sound speed and density differences in the envelope.