Testing the Constancy of the Gravitational Constant Using Helioseismology

Abstract

We compare the p-modeoscillation spectra of solar models, constructed under the assumptionthat the universal gravitation constant G varied monotonically overthe course of the solar lifetime, to the most recent solar p-modefrequency observations from the Global Oscillation Network Group (GONG)instrument and Birmingham Solar Oscillation Network (BiSON). The GONGinstrument consists of six telescopes spread over different longitudearound the Earth, each recording, once every minute, Doppler shiftimages of the Sun's surface. BiSON also consists of a network of sixtelescopes specifically designed to observe low-l p-modes. We find thatonly those solar models constructed with (1/G)dG/dt