Helioseismology and the Solar Interior Dynamics

Abstract The inversion of helioseismic modes leads to the sound velocity inside the Sun with a precision of about 0.1 per cent. Comparisons of solar models with the “seismic sun” represent powerful tools to test the physics: depth of the convection zone, equation of state, opacities, element diffusion processes and mixing inside the radiative zone. We now have evidence that microscopic diffusion (element segregation) does occur below the convection zone, leading to a mild helium depletion in the solar outer layers. Meanwhile this process must be slowed down by some macroscopic effect, presumably rotation-induced mixing. The same mixing is also responsible for the observed lithium depletion. On the other hand, the observations of beryllium and helium 3 impose specific constraints on the depth of this mildly mixed zone. Helioseismology also gives information on the internal solar rotation: while differential rotation exists in the convection zone, solid rotation prevails in the radiative zone, and the transition layer (the so-called “tachocline”) is very small. These effects are discussed, together with the astrophysical constraints on the solar neutrino fluxes.