Origin and Evolution of Life Constraints on the Solar Model (Report‪)‬

1. Introduction Life is an out of equilibrium, thermodynamic process. As such, its origin, persistence, and evolution are strictly dependent on the dissipation of an external thermodynamic potential (entropy production) and the evolution of this potential in time. By far the most important thermodynamic potential which has promoted the existence of life on Earth is the temperature gradient provided by the hot photosphere of the Sun (~5,800 K today) and the cool volume of outer space (2.7 K). Life arose as an entropy producing thermodynamic process in response to the Earth being located between the Sun's hot photosphere and the cool space environment. The origin and evolution of life on Earth must, therefore, in some way (to be explored below) parallel the origin and evolution of our Sun. The evolutionary history of life on Earth thus provides constraints on models for the origin and evolution of our Sun. Here we show that these constraints yield convincing arguments for distinguishing between competing solar models.