Progress in global helioseismology: a new light on the solar modelling problem and its implications for solar-like stars

Abstract

Since the first observations of solar oscillations, helioseismology has been one of the most successful fields of astrophysics. Data of high quality were obtained through the implementation of networks of ground-based observatories such as the GONG project or the BiSON network, coupled with space-based telescopes such as SOHO and SDO missions. Besides the improvement of observational data, solar seismologists developed sophisticated techniques to infer the internal structure of the Sun. These methods, then already extensively used in the field of Geophysics, are called inversion techniques. They allowed to determine the position of the solar convective envelope, its helium abundance and the internal radial profiles of thermodynamic quantities. Back in 1990s these comparisons showed a very high agreement between solar models and the Sun. However, the downward revision of the CNO surface abundances in the Sun induced a drastic reduction of this agreement leading to the solar modelling problem. More than ten years later, in the era of the space-based photometry missions which have established asteroseismology of solar-like stars as a standard approach to obtain their masses, radii and ages, the solar modelling problem still awaits a solution. We will present the results of new helioseismic inversions, discuss the current uncertainties of solar models as well as some possible solutions to the solar problem. We will show how helioseismology can help us grasp what is amiss in our models. We will also show that, far from being an argument about details of solar models, the solar problem has significant implications for seismology of solar-like stars, on the main sequence and beyond, impacting asteroseismology as a whole as well as the fields requiring precise and accurate knowledge of stellar masses, radii and ages, such as Galactic archaeology and exoplanetology.