Solar Neutrino Flux Variability

Stanford University, Stanford CA

Investigators

Abstract

Sturrock, Peter " Solar Neutrino Flux Variability " AST- 0097128 The deficiency of observed neutrinos emanating from the Sun has been one of the most intriguing problems of solar astrophysics in recent years. Most researchers now believe that this is more a consequence of neutrino physics and explain the deficiency as a consequence of the transformation of electron neutrinos into muon or tau neutrinos as they fly out of the center of the Sun. Since the Sun's structure is very stable, the flux of neutrinos should be constant. But in arguments that are addressed in this award, the PI and his collaborators believe that magnetic fields may play an important part. In recent papers, they point out that, if the neutrino has a very small magnetic moment, then the magnetic field of the sun, which is not distributed isotropically, could modulate the neutron flux by converting left-handed neutrinos into right-handed neutrinos which would not be registered by terrestrial detectors. The PI and his team support their theory by claiming that the neutrino flux from the Sun varies with a period close to the rotation period of the deep convection zone. The evidence comes from a sophisticated analysis of existing Homestake and GALLEX-GNO data. There are many critics of this analysis. The principal effort made in this award will be to address the critics by reviewing previous analyses and to make preparations for the study of the Super-Kamiokande data and other data sets, as they become available. ***