The run of superadiabaticity in stellar convection zones. II. Effect of photospheric convection on solar p-mode frequencies

Kim and Chan have completed a three-dimensional numerical simulation of the interaction between turbulent convection and radiation in and above the hi ghly superadiabatic layer (SAL) in the Sun. They have shown that the dynami cs of the domain dictates a SAL structure different from that of a traditio nal hydrostatic solar model. The top boundary of the convection zone is mov ed outward by about 0.3 pressure scale height, and in addition, convective overshoot extends into the radiative atmosphere layers by 0.45 pressure sca le height. Using our one-dimensional stellar evolution code, we have studie d the sensitivity of the calculated p-mode frequencies to a modification of the SAL structure similar to that predicted by Kim and Chan. We find that it is possible to remove in this way the main discrepancy between observed and calculated p-mode frequencies. This experiment is a promising first ste p in the use of physically realistic three-dimensional radiative-hydrodynam ic numerical simulations to derive reliable surface boundary conditions for one-dimensional stellar models.