The solar carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen abundances from a 3D LTE analysis of molecular lines

Line: formation; Radiative transfer; Sun: abundances; Sun: atmosphere; Sun: photosphere; Carbon; Molecular oxygen; Intensity spectrum; Line formations; Local thermodynamic equilibrium; Molecular lines; Solar intensities; Solar model problem; Thermodynamics equilibrium analysis; Nitrogen

Abstract :

[en] Carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are the fourth, sixth, and third most abundant elements in the Sun. Their abundances remain hotly debated due to the so-called solar modelling problem that has persisted for almost 20 years. We revisit this issue by presenting a homogeneous analysis of 408 molecular lines across 12 diagnostic groups, observed in the solar intensity spectrum. Using a realistic 3D radiative-hydrodynamic model solar photosphere and local thermodynamic equilibrium (LTE) line formation, we find log ? C = 8.47 ± 0.02, log ? N = 7.89 ± 0.04, and log ? O = 8.70 ± 0.04. The stipulated uncertainties mainly reflect the sensitivity of the results to the model atmosphere; this sensitivity is correlated between the different diagnostic groups, which all agree with the mean result to within 0.03 dex. For carbon and oxygen, the molecular results are in excellent agreement with our 3D non-LTE analyses of atomic lines. For nitrogen, however, the molecular indicators give a 0.12 dex larger abundance than the atomic indicators, and our best estimate of the solar nitrogen abundance is given by the mean: 7.83 dex. The solar oxygen abundance advocated here is close to our earlier determination of 8.69 dex, and so the present results do not significantly alleviate the solar modelling problem. © ESO 2021.

Disciplines :

Space science, astronomy & astrophysics

Author, co-author :

Amarsi, A.M.; Theoretical Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Box 516, Uppsala, 751 20, Sweden

Grevesse, Nicolas ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Centres généraux > CSL (Centre Spatial de Liège)

Asplund, M.; Australian Academy of Science, Box 783, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia

Collet, R.; Stellar Astrophysics Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 120, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark

Language :

English

Title :

The solar carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen abundances from a 3D LTE analysis of molecular lines

Publication date :

2021

Journal title :

Astronomy and Astrophysics

ISSN :

0004-6361

eISSN :

1432-0746

Publisher :

EDP Sciences

Volume :

656

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Funding text :

Acknowledgements. We are grateful to Matthias Steffen for providing a detailed and insightful referee report, which led to a number of improvements to this manuscript. We thank T. Masseron and C. Sneden for their assistance with compiling the molecular data. AMA acknowledges support from the Swedish Research Council (VR 2016-03765 and 2020-03940). MA acknowledges funding from the Australian Research Council through a Laureate Fellowship (FL110100012) and a Discovery Project (DP150100250). This research was supported by computational resources provided by the Australian Government through the National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) under the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme and the ANU Merit Allocation Scheme (project y89).

Available on ORBi :

since 11 December 2022

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