A study from the Department of Physics at Tezpur University (TU) has marked a significant breakthrough in understanding how gravity operates inside the Sun. The research, titled “Stability and Wave Dynamics in Polytropic Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) Gravitating Solar Plasmas”, has been accepted for publication in Physical Review E, which is published by the American Physical Society (APS), one of the world’s most prestigious scientific societies. APS journals are internationally recognised for their rigorous peer-review process and high editorial standards.
The study has been carried out by Pralay Kumar Karmakar, Professor, Department of Physics, and Souvik Das, Senior Research Fellow (DST-INSPIRE), Tezpur University. It explores how a modified theory of gravity, known as Eddington-inspired Born-Infeld (EiBI) gravity, alters the behaviour of waves inside the Sun.
The Sun’s interior is filled with plasma waves that transport energy and play a crucial role in maintaining solar stability. Traditionally, these waves have been studied using Newton’s theory of gravity. The present research investigates how the EiBI modified gravity framework changes wave dynamics under the Sun’s extreme internal temperature and density conditions.
By combining advanced mathematical modelling with four years of helioseismic data from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager on board NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, the researchers found that even small deviations from conventional gravity can have measurable effects. Under EiBI gravity, wave speeds and energy transport inside the Sun can increase by as much as 55 per cent, resulting in more stable solar oscillations.
The study further reveals that gravity-related oscillation modes, previously thought to be insignificant, can carry a substantial amount of energy in the modified gravity scenario. Importantly, the model’s predictions show striking agreement with actual solar observations, marking the first observational test of EiBI gravity inside a star.
‘Our results show that even small corrections to gravity can have measurable effects on how the Sun’s interior oscillates and transports energy. The close match between theory and observation makes this study particularly exciting,’ said lead author Mr Souvik Das.
‘This work clearly demonstrates that the Sun itself can be used as a natural laboratory to test modified theories of gravity beyond Einstein. Helioseismology offers a powerful new window into fundamental physics,’ added supervisor Prof. Pralay Kumar Karmakar.
Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1103/2djh-d4qh
