CONSTRAINTS ON THE OPACITY PROFILE OF THE SUN FROM HELIOSEISMIC OBSERVABLES AND SOLAR NEUTRINO FLUX MEASUREMENTS

Motivated by the solar composition problem and by using the recently developed linear solar model approach, we analyze the role of opacity and metals in the Sun. After a brief discussion of the relation between the effects produced by a variation of composition and those produced by a modification of the radiative opacity, we calculate numerically the opacity kernels that, in a linear approximation, relate an arbitrary opacity variation to the corresponding modification of the solar observable properties. We use these opacity kernels to discuss the present constraints on opacity (and composition) provided by helioseismic and solar neutrino data.