Seismic study of solar convection and overshooting: results of nonlocal convection

Abstract

Local mixing-length theory is incapable of describing nonlocal phenomena in stellar convection, such as overshooting. Therefore standard solar models constructed with local mixing-length theory significantly deviate from the Sun at the boundariesof the convection zone, where convection becomes less efficient and nonlocal effects are important. The differences between observed and computed frequencies mainly come from the region near the surface, while the localized difference in sound speed is just below the convective envelope. We compute a solar envelope model using Xiong's nonlocal convection theory, and carry out helioseismic analysis. The nonlocal model has a smooth transition at the base of the convection zone, as revealed by helioseismology. It reproduces solar frequencies more accurately, and reduces the localized difference in sound speed between the Sun and standard solar models.