Electric Sun & Solar Neutrinos I
Behold the following exchange ...
So was standard theory *immediately* falsified the moment its "predictions" about the number of electron neutrinos didn't match "observation", or was it given a "free pass" for awhile until they figured out why it didn't jive?
The combination of the standard solar theory and the theory of neutrinos was falsified. The observation alone didn't tell us which was wrong, only that one was. Subsequent observations have revealed that our initial neutrino models were wrong.
So the mainstream *immediately* stopped teaching the standard solar model the moment the neutrino problem was first noticed? Come on!
Stop playing the fool. The most likely possibility at the time, which has since been confirmed, is that the neutrino model was wrong, not that stellar core fusion was. Why? Well, fusion was well understood, but neutrinos weren't.
This exchange of comments clearly outlines
Mozina's very weak understanding of what science really is and how it should be done; I don't mean just solar physics in particular, but rather the deeper concept of science in general, an important distinction. Just consider the logic. Suppose we have an hypothesis or a theory about something in science, that we test out idea by some experiment or observation, and that the results of our test are contrary to the prediction(s) of the hypothesis or theory. What are the logical consequences of this fact? Let us list the logical possibilities:
- The hypothesis or theory is in error.
- The test is logically sound but poorly done, so that the data are in error.
- The test is not logically sound, therefore the data are inconsequential.
In this list I ignored the obvious possibility that
both the theory and the test are flawed. In any case, the correct response to the contrary test results should be easy to figure out. Scientists responded by examining all three points shown above. Was the test on sound logical ground? Yes, the presence or absence of solar neutrinos are a critical test for the presence of the nuclear reactions that emit neutrinos. Was the test properly executed? Yes, the experimental procedures were carefully examined and found to be adequate, such that the significance and completeness of the data were sufficient to challenge the theory. So it did not take long to realize that the theory which predicted solar neutrino emissions was flawed in some as yet unknown way.
At this point we need to get out our intellectual magnifying glass and go beyond general science to the specific physics of the theory in question. How does it work? Let us once again list the key points:
- The deep solar core is hot enough to initiate nuclear fusion.
- The fusion reactions emit neutrinos.
- The neutrinos travel from the Sun to the Earth.
- The neutrinos pass through Earth based detectors.
- A predictable fraction of the neutrinos react with the detector (they are "detected").
- The detected neutrinos are counted.
- The count is either consistent or inconsistent with predictions of the theory.
Once again, every element of this list has to be examined to see if reality is what we expect it to be, or something different. This is exactly what scientists did. Whether or not the solar core is hot enough to initiate fusion can be determined from first principles of physics (plasma physics, thermodynamics & etc.) and repeated tests revealed no flaw in the physics on which the predictions for the internal temperature of the Sun were based. This fundamental (mostly theoretical) research was critically supported by the growing discipline of helioseismology, which observations made it clear that no flaw of sufficient magnitude could by found in the basic astrophysically predicted internal structure of the Sun (see, for instance,
Bahcall, et al., 1997;
Bahcall, Pinsonneault & Basu, 2001 and citations thereto).
While the standard solar model was being run through the theoretical & observational verification process, so was the physics of neutrinos being equally verified. With this in mind, we must be aware (as were of course the physicists involved in this process) that it had already been predicted by quantum physics that neutrinos could "oscillate", meaning change from one type to another (the three types of neutrino are electron, tau & muon; solar neutrino detection experiments up to this time were able to detect only electron neutrinos). This is the Mikheyev - Smirnov - Wolfenstein (
MSW) effect (
Wolfenstein, 1978;
Mikheyev & Smirnov, 1986 and citations thereto).
So a theoretical solution to the problem existed early on: The solar electron neutrinos could oscillate and turn into tau or muon neutrinos while on their way from the point where they were created in a nuclear reaction to the point where only the now reduced number of electron neutrinos could be sampled and recorded. Therefore it remained to test this hypothesis by designing experiments sensitive to all 3 neutrino types, as opposed to only the electron type. This was done and it was determined that the total flux of neutrinos observed was equal to the total flux of electron neutrinos predicted from the Sun (see, e.g.,
Ahmad, et al., 2001;
Ahmad, et al., 2002 and citations thereto). Furthermore, entirely ground based experiments have shown the same effect, the disappearance of electron neutrinos by oscillation from an Earth based neutrino beam (e.g.,
Araki, et al., 2005;
Fogli, et al., 2003). So the combined observations of both solar & terrestrial neutrinos are in mutual agreement on the scale of the neutrino oscillation effect. And for the serious nay-sayers, allow me to point out that we know the solar neutrinos are solar, not only because of the extremely narrow (and highly predictable) energy ranges, but also because the day-night asymmetry in neutrino counts is consistent with the motion of the Sun (neutrinos oscillate as they pass through the Earth; see, e.g.,
Smy, et al., 2004).
The current status of the solar neutrino problem is
solved. We know exactly what is happening. We know that the astrophysical models for the internal structure of the Sun are as predicted. We know that the electron neutrinos emitted by the Sun are oscillating into other neutrino types within the sun, and within the Earth. We know that the total number of neutrinos counted (all three types) is equal to the total number of neutrinos predicted from the Sun (electron neutrinos only).
Now, one more comment to revisit ...
So the mainstream *immediately* stopped teaching the standard solar model the moment the neutrino problem was first noticed? Come on!
In the United States, curricula for high school and below are fairly rigid and established by state law. Teachers are, for the most part far removed from the current state of topics they teach because they are under a heavy burden of teaching & bureaucratic tasks which keep them from doing much of anything else. Furthermore, textbooks, which have to pass a lengthy procedure of acceptance at the state level, on top of the time it takes to write them, are commonly years or even decades behind the current state of the subject (this is true across the board for most subjects). So the idea of any such thing happening for any subject, at the high school level, is highly impractical at best.
University teaching is another matter altogether, as the teaching is usually done by someone who is simultaneously involved in active research. But that means they are actively aware of the tasks I have outlined above. Would we, or should we, expect the original inconsistency to initiate a halt to teaching the standard model?
Certainly not. There is no excuse for such a thing; you teach the standard model because it is well founded on well understood physics, but you also teach the inconsistency along with it. I was myself a student during the height of the solar neutrino problem and that's exactly what we did. In the absence of a definitive demonstration of where the problem lies, you teach the problem to the students who will then become scientists involved in the process I outlined above, to find the solution. You don't qualify people to take part in the process by leaving out large chunks of the knowledge they need.
Now, since
Mozina seems not to dispute an internal, nuclear energy source for the Sun, this is perhaps less relevant to his ideas. But it is relevant to other electric Sun models we have seen, which dispute the standard model's internal, nuclear energy source for the Sun. It is just one more in a long list of good reasons to abandon any model that requires an external energy source for the Sun.