The study of neutrinos is fundamental to connect astrophysics and elementary particle physics. In this last decade solar neutrino experiments and KamLAND confirmed the LMA solution and further clarified the mass and oscillation pattern. Borexino atta
cked also the study of the low energy neutrino spectrum. However, important points still need clarification, like the apparent anomaly in the vacuum to matter transition region. Besides, a more detailed study of the low energy components of the pp cycle, combined with a measurement of CNO fluxes, is compulsory, also to discriminate between the low and the high
We review the results of solar neutrino physics, with particular attention to the data obtained and the analyses performed in the last decades, which were determinant to solve the solar neutrino problem (SNP), proving that neutrinos are massive and o
scillating particles and contributing to refine the solar models. We also discuss the perspectives of the presently running experiments in this sector and of the ones planned for the near future and the impact they can have on elementary particle physics and astrophysics.
More than 40 years ago, neutrinos where conceived as a way to test the validity of the solar models which tell us that stars are powered by nuclear fusion reactions. The first measurement of the neutrino flux, in 1968 in the Homestake mine in South D
akota, detected only one third of the expected value, originating what has been known as the Solar Neutrino Problem. Different experiments were built in order to understand the origin of this discrepancy. Now we know that neutrinos undergo oscillation phenomenon changing their nature traveling from the core of the Sun to our detectors. In the work the 40 year long saga of the neutrino detection is presented; from the first proposals to test the solar models to last real time measurements of the low energy part of the neutrino spectrum.
