Helioseismology is the study of the structure and dynamics of the Sun through its oscillations. These are principally caused by sound waves that are continuously driven and damped by convection near the Sun's surface. It is similar to geoseismology, or asteroseismology, which are respectively the studies of the Earth or stars through their oscillations. While the Sun's oscillations were first detected in the early 1960s, it was only in the mid-1970s that it was realized that the oscillations propagated throughout the Sun and could allow scientists to study the Sun's deep interior. The term was coined by Douglas Gough in the 90s. The modern field is separated into global helioseismology, which studies the Sun's resonant modes directly, [1] and local helioseismology, which studies the propagation of the component waves near the Sun's surface. [2]
Helioseismology has contributed to a number of scientific breakthroughs. The most notable was to show that the anomaly in the predicted neutrino flux from the Sun could not be caused by flaws in stellar models and must instead be a problem of particle physics. The so-called solar neutrino problem was ultimately resolved by neutrino oscillations. [3] [4] [5] The experimental discovery of neutrino oscillations was recognized by the 2015 Nobel Prize for Physics. [6] Helioseismology also allowed accurate measurements of the quadrupole (and higher-order) moments of the Sun's gravitational potential, [7] [8] [9] which are consistent with General Relativity. The first helioseismic calculations of the Sun's internal rotation profile showed a rough separation into a rigidly-rotating core and differentially-rotating envelope. The boundary layer is now known as the tachocline [10] and is thought to be a key component for the solar dynamo. [11] Although it roughly coincides with the base of the solar convection zone — also inferred through helioseismology — it is conceptually distinct, being a boundary layer in which there is a meridional flow connected with the convection zone and driven by the interplay between baroclinicity and Maxwell stresses. [12]
Helioseismology benefits most from continuous monitoring of the Sun, which began first with uninterrupted observations from near the South Pole over the austral summer. [13] [14] In addition, observations over multiple solar cycles have allowed helioseismologists to study changes in the Sun's structure over decades. These studies are made possible by global telescope networks like the Global Oscillations Network Group (GONG) and the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON), which have been operating for over several decades.
Solar oscillation modes are interpreted as resonant vibrations of a roughly spherically symmetric self-gravitating fluid in hydrostatic equilibrium. Each mode can then be represented approximately as the product of a function of radius and a spherical harmonic , and consequently can be characterized by the three quantum numbers which label:
It can be shown that the oscillations are separated into two categories: interior oscillations and a special category of surface oscillations. More specifically, there are:
Pressure modes are in essence standing sound waves. The dominant restoring force is the pressure (rather than buoyancy), hence the name. All the solar oscillations that are used for inferences about the interior are p modes, with frequencies between about 1 and 5 millihertz and angular degrees ranging from zero (purely radial motion) to order . Broadly speaking, their energy densities vary with radius inversely proportional to the sound speed, so their resonant frequencies are determined predominantly by the outer regions of the Sun. Consequently it is difficult to infer from them the structure of the solar core.
Gravity modes are confined to convectively stable regions, either the radiative interior or the atmosphere. The restoring force is predominantly buoyancy, and thus indirectly gravity, from which they take their name. They are evanescent in the convection zone, and therefore interior modes have tiny amplitudes at the surface and are extremely difficult to detect and identify. [17] It has long been recognized that measurement of even just a few g modes could substantially increase our knowledge of the deep interior of the Sun. [18] However, no individual g mode has yet been unambiguously measured, although indirect detections have been both claimed [19] [20] and challenged. [21] [22] Additionally, there can be similar gravity modes confined to the convectively stable atmosphere.
Surface gravity waves are analogous to waves in deep water, having the property that the Lagrangian pressure perturbation is essentially zero. They are of high degree , penetrating a characteristic distance , where is the solar radius. To good approximation, they obey the so-called deep-water-wave dispersion law: , irrespective of the stratification of the Sun, where is the angular frequency, is the surface gravity and is the horizontal wavenumber, [23] and tend asymptotically to that relation as .
The oscillations that have been successfully utilized for seismology are essentially adiabatic. Their dynamics is therefore the action of pressure forces (plus putative Maxwell stresses) against matter with inertia density , which itself depends upon the relation between them under adiabatic change, usually quantified via the (first) adiabatic exponent . The equilibrium values of the variables and (together with the dynamically small angular velocity and magnetic field ) are related by the constraint of hydrostatic support, which depends upon the total mass and radius of the Sun. Evidently, the oscillation frequencies depend only on the seismic variables , , and , or any independent set of functions of them. Consequently it is only about these variables that information can be derived directly. The square of the adiabatic sound speed, , is such commonly adopted function, because that is the quantity upon which acoustic propagation principally depends. [24] Properties of other, non-seismic, quantities, such as helium abundance, [25] , or main-sequence age [26] , can be inferred only by supplementation with additional assumptions, which renders the outcome more uncertain.
The chief tool for analysing the raw seismic data is the Fourier transform. To good approximation, each mode is a damped harmonic oscillator, for which the power as a function of frequency is a Lorentz function. Spatially resolved data are usually projected onto desired spherical harmonics to obtain time series which are then Fourier transformed. Helioseismologists typically combine the resulting one-dimensional power spectra into a two-dimensional spectrum.
The lower frequency range of the oscillations is dominated by the variations caused by granulation. This must first be filtered out before (or at the same time that) the modes are analysed. Granular flows at the solar surface are mostly horizontal, from the centres of the rising granules to the narrow downdrafts between them. Relative to the oscillations, granulation produces a stronger signal in intensity than line-of-sight velocity, so the latter is preferred for helioseismic observatories.
Local helioseismology—a term coined by Charles Lindsey, Doug Braun and Stuart Jefferies in 1993 [28] —employs several different analysis methods to make inferences from the observational data. [2]
The Sun's oscillation modes represent a discrete set of observations that are sensitive to its continuous structure. This allows scientists to formulate inverse problems for the Sun's interior structure and dynamics. Given a reference model of the Sun, the differences between its mode frequencies and those of the Sun, if small, are weighted averages of the differences between the Sun's structure and that of the reference model. The frequency differences can then be used to infer those structural differences. The weighting functions of these averages are known as kernels.
The first inversions of the Sun's structure were made using Duvall's law [37] and later using Duvall's law linearized about a reference solar model. [38] These results were subsequently supplemented by analyses that linearize the full set of equations describing the stellar oscillations about a theoretical reference model [18] [39] [40] and are now a standard way to invert frequency data. [41] [42] The inversions demonstrated differences in solar models that were greatly reduced by implementing gravitational settling: the gradual separation of heavier elements towards the solar centre (and lighter elements to the surface to replace them). [43] [44]
If the Sun were perfectly spherical, the modes with different azimuthal orders m would have the same frequencies. Rotation, however, breaks this degeneracy, and the modes frequencies differ by rotational splittings that are weighted-averages of the angular velocity through the Sun. Different modes are sensitive to different parts of the Sun and, given enough data, these differences can be used to infer the rotation rate throughout the Sun. [45] For example, if the Sun were rotating uniformly throughout, all the p modes would be split by approximately the same amount. Actually, the angular velocity is not uniform, as can be seen at the surface, where the equator rotates faster than the poles. [46] The Sun rotates slowly enough that a spherical, non-rotating model is close enough to reality for deriving the rotational kernels.
Helioseismology has shown that the Sun has a rotation profile with several features: [47]
Helioseismology was born from analogy with geoseismology but several important differences remain. First, the Sun lacks a solid surface and therefore cannot support shear waves. From the data analysis perspective, global helioseismology differs from geoseismology by studying only normal modes. Local helioseismology is thus somewhat closer in spirit to geoseismology in the sense that it studies the complete wavefield.
Because the Sun is a star, helioseismology is closely related to the study of oscillations in other stars, known as asteroseismology. Helioseismology is most closely related to the study of stars whose oscillations are also driven and damped by their outer convection zones, known as solar-like oscillators, but the underlying theory is broadly the same for other classes of variable star.
The principal difference is that oscillations in distant stars cannot be resolved. Because the brighter and darker sectors of the spherical harmonic cancel out, this restricts asteroseismology almost entirely to the study of low degree modes (angular degree ). This makes inversion much more difficult but upper limits can still be achieved by making more restrictive assumptions.
Solar oscillations were first observed in the early 1960s [48] [49] as a quasi-periodic intensity and line-of-sight velocity variation with a period of about 5 minutes. Scientists gradually realized that the oscillations might be global modes of the Sun and predicted that the modes would form clear ridges in two-dimensional power spectra. [50] [51] The ridges were subsequently confirmed in observations of high-degree modes in the mid 1970s, [52] [53] and mode multiplets of different radial orders were distinguished in whole-disc observations. [13] [54] At a similar time, Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard and Douglas Gough suggested the potential of using individual mode frequencies to infer the interior structure of the Sun. [55] They calibrated solar models against the low-degree data [56] finding two similarly good fits, one with low and a corresponding low neutrino production rate , the other with higher and ; earlier envelope calibrations against high-degree frequencies [57] [58] preferred the latter, but the results were not wholly convincing. It was not until Tom Duvall and Jack Harvey [14] connected the two extreme data sets by measuring modes of intermediate degree to establish the quantum numbers associated with the earlier observations that the higher- model was established, thereby suggesting at that early stage that the resolution of the neutrino problem must lie in nuclear or particle physics.
New methods of inversion developed in the 1980s, allowing researchers to infer the profiles sound speed and, less accurately, density throughout most of the Sun, corroborating the conclusion that residual errors in the inference of the solar structure is not the cause of the neutrino problem. Towards the end of the decade, observations also began to show that the oscillation mode frequencies vary with the Sun's magnetic activity cycle. [59]
To overcome the problem of not being able to observe the Sun at night, several groups had begun to assemble networks of telescopes (e.g. the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network, or BiSON, [60] [61] and the Global Oscillation Network Group [62] ) from which the Sun would always be visible to at least one node. Long, uninterrupted observations brought the field to maturity, and the state of the field was summarized in a 1996 special issue of Science magazine . [63] This coincided with the start of normal operations of the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SoHO), which began producing high-quality data for helioseismology.
The subsequent years saw the resolution of the solar neutrino problem, and the long seismic observations began to allow analysis of multiple solar activity cycles. [64] The agreement between standard solar models and helioseismic inversions [65] was disrupted by new measurements of the heavy element content of the solar photosphere based on detailed three-dimensional models. [66] Though the results later shifted back towards the traditional values used in the 1990s, [67] the new abundances significantly worsened the agreement between the models and helioseismic inversions. [68] The cause of the discrepancy remains unsolved [24] and is known as the solar abundance problem.
Space-based observations by SoHO have continued and SoHO was joined in 2010 by the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), which has also been monitoring the Sun continuously since its operations began. In addition, ground-based networks (notably BiSON and GONG) continue to operate, providing nearly continuous data from the ground too.
CoRoT was a space telescope mission which operated from 2006 to 2013. The mission's two objectives were to search for extrasolar planets with short orbital periods, particularly those of large terrestrial size, and to perform asteroseismology by measuring solar-like oscillations in stars. The mission was led by the French Space Agency (CNES) in conjunction with the European Space Agency (ESA) and other international partners.
Asteroseismology is the study of oscillations in stars. Stars have many resonant modes and frequencies, and the path of sound waves passing through a star depends on the local speed of sound, which in turn depends on local temperature and chemical composition. Because the resulting oscillation modes are sensitive to different parts of the star, they inform astronomers about the internal structure of the star, which is otherwise not directly possible from overall properties like brightness and surface temperature.
Solar radius is a unit of distance used to express the size of stars in astronomy relative to the Sun. The solar radius is usually defined as the radius to the layer in the Sun's photosphere where the optical depth equals 2/3:
In plasma physics, an Alfvén wave, named after Hannes Alfvén, is a type of plasma wave in which ions oscillate in response to a restoring force provided by an effective tension on the magnetic field lines.
Stellar structure models describe the internal structure of a star in detail and make predictions about the luminosity, the color and the future evolution of the star. Different classes and ages of stars have different internal structures, reflecting their elemental makeup and energy transport mechanisms.
Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which a neutrino created with a specific lepton family number can later be measured to have a different lepton family number. The probability of measuring a particular flavor for a neutrino varies between three known states, as it propagates through space.
Solar rotation varies with latitude. The Sun is not a solid body, but is composed of a gaseous plasma. Different latitudes rotate at different periods. The source of this differential rotation is an area of current research in solar astronomy. The rate of surface rotation is observed to be the fastest at the equator and to decrease as latitude increases. The solar rotation period is 25.67 days at the equator and 33.40 days at 75 degrees of latitude.
The tachocline is the transition region of stars of more than 0.3 solar masses, between the radiative interior and the differentially rotating outer convective zone. This causes the region to have a very large shear as the rotation rate changes very rapidly. The convective exterior rotates as a normal fluid with differential rotation with the poles rotating slowly and the equator rotating quickly. The radiative interior exhibits solid-body rotation, possibly due to a fossil field. The rotation rate through the interior is roughly equal to the rotation rate at mid-latitudes, i.e. in-between the rate at the slow poles and the fast equator. Recent results from helioseismology indicate that the tachocline is located at a radius of at most 0.70 times the solar radius, with a thickness of 0.04 times the solar radius. This would mean the area has a very large shear profile that is one way that large scale magnetic fields can be formed.
The standard solar model (SSM) is a mathematical model of the Sun as a spherical ball of gas. This stellar model, technically the spherically symmetric quasi-static model of a star, has stellar structure described by several differential equations derived from basic physical principles. The model is constrained by boundary conditions, namely the luminosity, radius, age and composition of the Sun, which are well determined. The age of the Sun cannot be measured directly; one way to estimate it is from the age of the oldest meteorites, and models of the evolution of the Solar System. The composition in the photosphere of the modern-day Sun, by mass, is 74.9% hydrogen and 23.8% helium. All heavier elements, called metals in astronomy, account for less than 2 percent of the mass. The SSM is used to test the validity of stellar evolution theory. In fact, the only way to determine the two free parameters of the stellar evolution model, the helium abundance and the mixing length parameter, are to adjust the SSM to "fit" the observed Sun.
Frequency separation within astrophysics, is a term used in both Helioseismology and Asteroseismology. It refers to the spacing in frequency between adjacent modes of oscillation, having the same angular degree (l) but different radial order (n).
Solar-like oscillations are oscillations in stars that are excited in the same way as those in the Sun, namely by turbulent convection in its outer layers. Stars that show solar-like oscillations are called solar-like oscillators. The oscillations are standing pressure and mixed pressure-gravity modes that are excited over a range in frequency, with the amplitudes roughly following a bell-shaped distribution. Unlike opacity-driven oscillators, all the modes in the frequency range are excited, making the oscillations relatively easy to identify. The surface convection also damps the modes, and each is well-approximated in frequency space by a Lorentzian curve, the width of which corresponds to the lifetime of the mode: the faster it decays, the broader is the Lorentzian. All stars with surface convection zones are expected to show solar-like oscillations, including cool main-sequence stars, subgiants and red giants. Because of the small amplitudes of the oscillations, their study has advanced tremendously thanks to space-based missions.
Ross 548 is a white dwarf in the equatorial constellation of Cetus. With a mean apparent visual magnitude of 14.2 it is much too faint to be visible to the naked eye. Based on parallax measurements, it is located at a distance of 107 light years from the Sun. It was found to be variable in 1970 and in 1972 it was given the variable star designation ZZ Ceti. This is a pulsating white dwarf of the DAV type that is the prototype of the ZZ Ceti variable class., pp. 891, 895.
Asteroseismology studies the internal structure of the Sun and other stars using oscillations. These can be studied by interpreting the temporal frequency spectrum acquired through observations. In the same way, the more extreme neutron stars might be studied and hopefully give us a better understanding of neutron-star interiors, and help in determining the equation of state for matter at nuclear densities. Scientists also hope to prove, or discard, the existence of so-called quark stars, or strange stars, through these studies. Fundamental information can be obtained of the General Relativity Theory by observing the gravitational radiation from oscillating neutron stars.
Coronal seismology is a technique of studying the plasma of the Sun's corona with the use of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves and oscillations. Magnetohydrodynamics studies the dynamics of electrically conducting fluids - in this case the fluid is the coronal plasma. Observed properties of the waves (e.g. period, wavelength, amplitude, temporal and spatial signatures, characteristic scenarios of the wave evolution, combined with a theoretical modelling of the wave phenomena, may reflect physical parameters of the corona which are not accessible in situ, such as the coronal magnetic field strength and Alfvén velocity and coronal dissipative coefficients. Originally, the method of MHD coronal seismology was suggested by Y. Uchida in 1970 for propagating waves, and B. Roberts et al. in 1984 for standing waves, but was not practically applied until the late 90s due to a lack of necessary observational resolution. Philosophically, coronal seismology is similar to the Earth's seismology, helioseismology, and MHD spectroscopy of laboratory plasma devices. In all these approaches, waves of various kind are used to probe a medium.
The Phoebus group is an international team of European, Japanese and American scientists aiming at detecting the solar g modes. As of October 5, 2009, the group has finally produced a review summarising the work performed over the past 12 years.
Philip R. Goode is an American theoretical physicist also working in observational astronomy and its instrumentation. He is a Distinguished Research Professor of Physics at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) with an H-index > 60. His career divides into five overlapping periods as follows:
Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard is a Danish astronomer at Aarhus University in Denmark. He specializes in asteroseismology and helioseismology. He has made significant contributions to both fields, including predicting the oscillation of Sun-like stars in 1983. He is the head of "Rumudvalget" and the Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC) supported by the Danish National Research Foundation. He is co-investigator on the Kepler mission and, with Hans Kjeldsen in Aarhus, leads the 500+ researchers in the Kepler Asteroseismic Science Consortium (KASC). KASC is responsible for the asteroseismology component of the Kepler mission. Christensen-Dalsgaard has published several papers on this subject. He was also previously the president of Commission 27 of the International Astronomical Union.
Douglas Owen Gough FRS is a British astronomer, Professor Emeritus of Theoretical Astrophysics in the University of Cambridge, and Leverhulme Emeritus Fellow.
Yvonne Elsworth FRS FInstP FRAS is an Irish-born physicist, Professor of Helioseismology and Poynting Professor of Physics in the School of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Birmingham. Elsworth was until 2015 also the Head of the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON), the longest running helioseismology network with data covering well over three solar cycles.
Solar radio emission refers to radio waves that are naturally produced by the Sun, primarily from the lower and upper layers of the atmosphere called the chromosphere and corona, respectively. The Sun produces radio emissions through four known mechanisms, each of which operates primarily by converting the energy of moving electrons into electromagnetic radiation. The four emission mechanisms are thermal bremsstrahlung (braking) emission, gyromagnetic emission, plasma emission, and electron-cyclotron maser emission. The first two are incoherent mechanisms, which means that they are the summation of radiation generated independently by many individual particles. These mechanisms are primarily responsible for the persistent "background" emissions that slowly vary as structures in the atmosphere evolve. The latter two processes are coherent mechanisms, which refers to special cases where radiation is efficiently produced at a particular set of frequencies. Coherent mechanisms can produce much larger brightness temperatures (intensities) and are primarily responsible for the intense spikes of radiation called solar radio bursts, which are byproducts of the same processes that lead to other forms of solar activity like solar flares and coronal mass ejections.
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