The Standard Solar Model and beyond

Abstract

The Standard Solar Model (SSM) is an important reference in Astrophysics as the Sun stays today the most observed star. This model is used to predict the internal observables like neutrino fluxes and oscillation frequencies and consequently to validate its assumptions for its generalization to other stars. The model outputs result from the resolution of the classical stellar equations and the knowledge of fundamental physics like nuclear reaction rates, screening, photon interaction, plasma physics. The plasma conditions remained unmeasurable in laboratory for long due to the high temperature and high density conditions of the solar interior. Today, neutrino detections and helioseismology aboard SoHO have largely revealed the solar interior, in particular the nuclear solar core so one can estimate the reliability of SSM and also its coherence with the different indicators and between them. This has been possible thanks to a Seismic Solar Model (SeSM) which takes into account in addition the observed sound speed profile. Seismology quantifies also some internal dynamical processes that need to be properly introduced in the description of stars. This review describes the different steps of building of the SSM, its predictions and the comparisons with observations. It discusses the accuracy of such model compared to the accuracy of the SeSM. The noticed differences and observational constraints put some limits on other possible processes like dark matter, magnetic field or waves and determine the directions of progress for the near future that will come from precise emitted neutrino fluxes. High density laser facilities promise also unprecedented checks of energy transfer by photons and nuclear reaction rates.