New view of the Sun

The article by Nassim Haramein inspired a detailed study of the TGD view of the Sun and eventually led to a rather radical proposal. The existing view about the interior of the Sun as a seat of nuclear fusion producing nuclear matter and transferred outside the Sun by the solar wind and supernovae might be totally wrong. Already the earlier considerations strongly suggested that nuclear matter is produced at the surface layer of the Sun that forms a magnetic bubble. The correlation of the neutrino flux with solar activity and its anticorrelation with sunspots further strengthens this conclusion. I have already earlier proposed a quantum view of the Sun as an analog of a harmonic oscillator consisting of matter shells as these magnetic bubbles.

The evolution of the star would mean that it gradually loses these analogs of nuclear shells formed by  giant nuclear strings consisting of M₈₉  nucleons 512 times heavier than ordinary M₈₉ nuclei. Global explosions in which M₈₉  transform to M₁₀₇ nuclei  generate planets and supernovae and local explosions generate the solar wind. No nuclear fusion in the solar interior is needed.

Further solar anomalies

There are also further solar anomalies discussed in the article of Haramein (see this). Not all of them are absolutely essential for the discussion of the TGD based model.

1. The theoretically predicted solar convection is too weak to explain empirical facts about heat transfer in the convective zone. In the TGD framework the notion of monopole flux tube is a natural seat of the convection (see this).

   One can also make a really radical questions? Is the solar interior something totally different from what we have used to think. Is there any fusion in the solar interior? What gives rise to the solar wind?

2. The anomalously high temperature of the solar corona is   poorly understood. Temperature is 3 orders of magnitude higher at the solar corona than at the solar surface and there is emission of high energy X rays (see this). The temperature is about 1 million Kelvin  whereas the ignition temperature for nuclear fusion is 15 million Kelvin. TGD predicts dark fusion explaining the "cold fusion" and it would play a key role also in the formation of the Sun and also other astrophysical objects.

3. Sunspot cycle having half-period of 11 years is one of the poorly understood aspects of the Sun. What happens is that the polarity of the solar magnetic field changes with a period of 11 years.

   The high energy gamma ray emission (see this) anti-correlates with the solar cycle so that the emission is minimum during the reversal of the magnetic field. Furthermore, the emission is largest towards North pole (see this). I have proposed a TGD based model for the sunspot cycle (see this) and this anomalous gamma rays are a surface phenomenon, and their emission correlates with the sunspot cycle, it is natural to start the model building from this model.

4. Solar neutrino problem, that is the fact that the observed neutrino flux is considerably lower than predicted by the standard solar model, is usually assumed to be due to the mixing of neutrinos as they travel from Sun to Earth. The article of Haramein (see this) challenges the notion of neutrino mixing. The proposal is that τ and μ neutrinos could be produced if the temperature in the solar core is much higher than it is believed to be. There is however strong evidence for neutrino mixing from experiments which use atmospheric neutrinos, reactor neutrinos or neutrinos from particle accelerators.
5. There is evidence for the correlation between the solar neutrino flux and solar wind and solar activity and for anticorrelation between solar neutrino flux and the number of sunspots (see this and this). It is however argued that the anticorrelation with the sunspot number does not exist (see this). In the framework of standard physics this looks strange if one believes that the production of neutrinos takes place in the interior of the Sun.

   This forces us to ask whether the origin of solar neutrinos is what it is believed to be. One can also challenge the existing beliefs about whether the convection is the origin of the solar wind and whether it could be generated at the surface layer of the Sun. Could the standard narrative about the interior of the Sun be completely wrong?

A new view of the Sun

The solar convection problem (see this) means that the convection, which should bring nuclear matter from the core to the surface, is much smaller than believed to be. The solar neutrino problem means that the solar neutrino flux is much lower than it is predicted to be. Furthermore, there is a correlation of the neutrino flux with the solar wind and anticorrelation with sunspot number were discussed (see this and this). These findings do not conform with the view that nuclear fusion produces the nuclear matter arriving from the Sun.

I have already earlier (see this) asked whether the Sun could be satisfactorily described by using the analog of the shell model with harmonic oscillator potential replaced with gravitational potential associated with the average mass density of the Sun.

The basic prediction concerning neutrinos would be that, not only nuclei, but also neutrinos are predominantly produced at the surface layer of the Sun: there would be no nuclear fusion in the core of the Sun! The long M₈₉ flux tubes split by reconnection to loops carrying. The M₈₉ nuclei transform to M₁₀₇ nuclei and almost all rest energy is transformed to kinetic energy causing the explosion. This process would also produce neutrinos brought to Earth by the solar wind.

Neutrino mixing is a well-established phenomenon and would take place also now. However, the model for the production of neutrinos changes profoundly. One expects that all neutrino generations are produced in the M₈₉ → M₁₀₇ transition. The production of neutrinos in the decays of ordinary pions produced as end products in the process could be an important mechanism, analogous to the interaction of the solar surface and atmosphere with cosmic rays also proposed as a mechanism for the production of neutrinos.

Mikheyev-Smirnov-Wolfenstein (MSW) effect (see this) is proposed as an explanation for the anomalously large mixing of high energy neutrinos involves a resonance effect caused by the presence of a density of electrons with a value dictated by neutrino mass difference considered. The MSW effect is not needed in the model. One can however ask whether the neutrinos could mix strongly in the solar corona and whether neutrinos could be produced in the corona as a side product of dark nuclear fusion.

This picture would explain why the neutrino flux correlates with solar activity. What about anticorrelation with the number of sunspots? The TGD based model for the reversal of the solar magnetic field assumes that the monopole flux tubes at the surface of the Sun split to short loops by reconnections, which then change their direction from North-South to South-North. The splitting would occur at sunspots. During this period there would be no big loops, whose reconnection and the transformation to ordinary nuclei would generate the solar wind. If the M₈₉ nuclei do not transform to ordinary nuclei during this period, the neutrino flux would have a minimum.

See the article Some solar mysteries or the chapter with the same title.

For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

For the lists of articles (most of them published in journals founded by Huping Hu) and books about TGD see this.