MHD origin of density fluctuations deep within the Sun and their influence on neutrino oscillation parameters in LMA MSW scenario

Abstract

We analyze helioseismic waves near the solar equator in the presence of magnetic fields deep within the solar radiative zone. We find that reasonable magnetic fields can significantly alter the shapes of the wave profiles for helioseismic g modes. They can do so because the existence of density gradients allows g modes to resonantly excite Alfven waves, causing mode energy to be funneled along magnetic field lines, away from the solar equatorial plane. The resulting waveforms show comparatively sharp spikes in the density profiles at radii where these resonances take place. Such matter density waves with known spatial structure are substituted as a matter density noise into the 2×2 Schrodinger equation for νe,π neutrinos oscillating within the Sun. Then we reexamine the sensitivity of solar neutrino oscillations to noise in the solar interior using the best current estimates of neutrino properties. Our results show that the measurement of neutrino properties at KamLAND provides new information about fluctuations in the solar environment on scales to which standard helioseismology constraints are largely insensitive. We also show how the determination of neutrino oscillation parameters from a combined fit of KamLAND and solar data depends strongly on the magnitude of solar density fluctuations.