What happened to the iron in the sun?

Abstract

If the mixture of hydrogen and iron is hot enough for an almost complete ionization of iron, and at the same time it is cool and dense enough to produce polarization of the electron sea around the iron ions, the Debye-Huckel approximation predicts separation of an iron-rich phase from the hydrogen-rich phase. The necessary conditions of this separation are fulfilled for most of the solar interior. The precipitation of iron towards the solar center may result in the formation of an inactive core (rich in heavy elements) at the center of the Sun, as it has been postulated to explain some observed anomalies in the non-radialg-mode oscillations. The depletion of the heavy elements from the highly ionized regions of the Sun reduces the opacity by 15–30 percent, decreases the central temperature by half a million K, and thus suppresses the most energetic component of the solar neutrino flux, coming from the Boron decay. For a chlorine detector, the estimated neutrino signal is decreased considerably with respect to the Standard Solar Model prediction, for a gallium detector it remains practically unchanged.