"What the Sun Has Taught Us About Basic Properties of Matter", Professor Sarbani Basu, Yale University

The Sun is an immensely large object formed out of many tons of gas. Yet the Sun can help us learn about some of the basic properties of matter. The structure of the Sun is governed not only by macrophysics such as hydrostatic equilibrium, convec- tive and radiative heat transport, but also by microphysics such as nuclear reaction rates and the equation of state of the material that forms the Sun. Knowledge of the detailed structure of the Sun can therefore help us constrain the basic properties of matter. Helioseismology, the study of solar pulsations, has given us the means to get a detailed picture of the solar interior. In this talk I shall discuss how helioseismology has allowed us to determine details of solar structure, and in turn allowing us to study basic properties of matter.