How do Uncertainties in the Surface Chemical Abundances of the Sun Affect the Predicted Solar Neutrino Fluxes?

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dc.creatorBahcall, John N.
dc.creatorSerenelli, Aldo M.
dc.date2004-12-03
dc.date2005-03-11
dc.date.accessioned2026-07-07T10:27:22Z
dc.date.available2026-07-07T10:27:22Z
dc.descriptionWe show that uncertainties in the values of the surface heavy element abundances of the Sun are the largest source of the theoretical uncertainty in calculating the p-p, pep, 8B, 13N, 15O, and 17F solar neutrino fluxes. We evaluate for the first time the sensitivity (partial derivative) of each solar neutrino flux with respect to the surface abundance of each element. We then calculate the uncertainties in each neutrino flux using `conservative (preferred)' and `optimistic' estimates for the uncertainties in the element abundances. The total conservative (optimistic) composition uncertainty in the predicted 8B neutrino flux is 11.6% (5.0%) when sensitivities to individual element abundances are used. The traditional method that lumps all abundances into a single quantity (total heavy element to hydrogen ratio, Z/X) yields a larger uncertainty, 20%. The uncertainties in the carbon, oxygen, neon, silicon, sulphur, and iron abundances all make significant contributions to the uncertainties in calculating solar neutrino fluxes; the uncertainties of different elements are most important for different neutrino fluxes. The uncertainty in the iron abundance is the largest source of the estimated composition uncertainties of the important 7Be and 8B solar neutrinos. Carbon is the largest contributor to the uncertainty in the calculation of the p-p, 13N, and 15O neutrino fluxes. However, for all neutrino fluxes, several elements contribute comparable amounts to the total composition uncertainty.
dc.description46 pages; software and data at http://www.sns.ias.edu/~jnb; includes several clarifications and new references requested by referee; accepted ApJ
dc.identifierhttps://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0412096
dc.identifierhttp://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0412096
dc.identifierAstrophys.J.626:530,2005
dc.identifierdoi:10.1086/429883
dc.identifier.urihttp://salesiana.dossiersoluciones.com/handle/123456789/177130
dc.subjectAstrophysics
dc.subjectHigh Energy Physics - Phenomenology
dc.subjectNuclear Experiment
dc.subjectNuclear Theory
dc.titleHow do Uncertainties in the Surface Chemical Abundances of the Sun Affect the Predicted Solar Neutrino Fluxes?
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