Abstract
The Sun provides a critical benchmark for the general study of stellar structure and evolution. Also, knowledge about the internal properties of the Sun is important for the understanding of solar atmospheric phenomena, including the solar magnetic cycle. Here I provide a brief overview of the theory of stellar structure and evolution, including the physical processes and parameters that are involved. This is followed by a discussion of solar evolution, extending from the birth to the latest stages. As a background for the interpretation of observations related to the solar interior I provide a rather extensive analysis of the sensitivity of solar models to the assumptions underlying their calculation. I then discuss the detailed information about the solar interior that has become available through helioseismic investigations and the detection of solar neutrinos, with further constraints provided by the observed abundances of the lightest elements. Revisions in the determination of the solar surface abundances have led to increased discrepancies, discussed in some detail, between the observational inferences and solar models. I finally briefly address the relation of the Sun to other similar stars and the prospects for asteroseismic investigations of stellar structure and evolution.
Highlights
The Sun provides a critical benchmark for the general study of stellar structure and evolution
It is obvious that sufficiently detailed observations of stellar properties, and comparison with models, may provide a possibility for testing the physics used in the model calculation, allowing investigations of physical processes far beyond the conditions that can be reached in a terrestrial laboratory
In an interesting short paper Stromgren (1950) summarized these early results. He noted that the presence of 7Li in the solar atmosphere clearly showed that convective mixing could extend at most to a temperature of 3:5 Â 106 K,3 beyond which lithium would be destroyed by nuclear reactions
Summary
Page 3 of 189 2 for lithium, are a crucial component of the study of Big-Bang nucleosynthesis. The detailed properties of supernovae are important for the study of element nucleosynthesis, while supernovae of Type Ia are crucial for determining the large-scale properties of the Universe, including the evidence for a dominant component of ‘dark energy’. In all these cases an accurate understanding, and modelling, of stellar interiors and their evolution is required for reliable results. Conditions in the solar interior are relatively benign, providing some hope that reasonably realistic modelling can be carried out It is an ideal case for investigations of stellar structure and evolution.
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