Boron abundance and solar neutrino spectrum distortion

The presence of neutrinos from Boron decay in the flux observed on Earth is attested by the observation of their energy spectrum. Possible distortions of the spectrum investigated in current detectors are often interpreted in terms of evidence in favour or against various schemes of neutrino oscillations. We stress here that a distortion of the spectrum at high energies could also result from an increase in the ratio of neutrinos originating from (He-3 + p)and B-8 reactions. While a SE neutrino depletion would contribute to this effect, an increase in the Hep contribution seems also needed to reproduce the preliminary data. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.