Some remarks on solar neutrinos

In 1970 Fred Hoyle encouraged a study of solar neutrino production which led to a long-term investigation of the influence of what have become known as 'non-standard' processes (i.e. processes that are not accounted for in the relatively naively constructed so-called 'standard' theoretical solar models). The outcome is a very much sounder understanding of the structure and dynamics of the Sun, which has yielded a knowledge of conditions in the energy-generating core so precise that one can set quite tight reliable constraints on neutrino-producing nuclear reactions, and thereby provide an important contribution to the study of neutrino transitions.