Solar Models: An Historical Overview

Abstract

I summarize in four slides the 40 years of development of the standard solar model that is used to predict solar neutrino fluxes and then describe the current uncertainties in the predictions. I next dispel the misconception that the p-p neutrino flux is determined by the solar luminosity and present a related formula that gives, in terms of the p-p and 7Be neutrino fluxes, the ratio of the rates of the two primary ways of terminating the p-p fusion chain. I will also attempt to explain why it took so long, about three and a half decades, to reach a consensus view that new physics is being learned from solar neutrino experiments. Finally, I close with a personal confession.