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Turcotte & Wimmer-Schweingruber 2002
Turcotte, S. and Wimmer-Schweingruber, R.F. (2002). Possible in situ tests of the evolution of elemental and isotopic abundances in the solar convection zone. Journal of Geophysical Research 107: doi: 10.1029/2002JA009418. issn: 0148-0227.

Helioseismology has shown that the chemical composition of the Sun has changed over its lifetime. The surface abundance of helium and heavy elements is believed to have decreased by up to 10% in relation to their initial values. However, this reduction is too small to be tested by direct observations of the photospheric chemical composition. Here we compare the predicted variations in the solar photospheric composition with precise measurements of abundances in meteorites and the solar wind composition. Although elemental composition ratios can vary by roughly a percent (e.g., for Ca/Mg and Ca/Fe) over the Sun's lifetime, their measurements are rife with uncertainties related to uncertainties in the interpretation of meteoritic measurements, photospheric determinations, and the complex fractionation processes occurring between the upper photosphere and lower chromosphere and the corona. On the other hand, isotopic ratios can be measured much more accurately and are not expected to be affected as much by extrasolar processes, although more work is required to quantify their effect. As the isotopic ratios evolve in the Sun proportionally to the mass ratios of the isotopes, light elements yield the highest variations in isotopic ratios. They are predicted to reach as high as 0.6% for 18O/16O and are only slightly lower in the cases of 26Mg/24Mg and 30Si/28Si. Such a value should be well within the sensitivity of new missions such as Genesis.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy, General or miscellaneous, Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy, Helioseismology, Solar Physics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy, Stellar interiors and dynamo theory
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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