\begin{table}%t3 \par \caption {\label{tab_sun}Compilations of the solar chemical composition adopted in the computation of the EOS and gas opacities.} %\centerline {\begin{tabular}{lccc} \hline \hline Reference & $Z_{\odot}$ & (C/O)$_{\odot}$ & (C/O)$^a$$_{{\rm crit},1}$\\ \hline Anders \& Grevesse \cite{Anders89} (AG89) & 0.0194 & 0.427 & 0.958\\ Grevesse \& Noels \cite{Grevesse93} (GN93) & 0.0173 & 0.479 & 0.952\\ Grevesse \& Sauval \cite{Grevesse98} (GS98) & 0.0170 & 0.490 & 0.947 \\ Holweger \cite{Holweger01} (H01)$^b$ & 0.0149 & 0.718 & 0.937 \\ Lodders \cite{Lodders03} (L03) & 0.0132 & 0.501 & 0.929 \\ Grevesse et~al. \cite{Grevesse07} (GAS07) & 0.0122 & 0.537 & 0.929 \\ Caffau et~al. \cite{Caffau09} (C09)$^c$ & 0.0155 & 0.575 & 0.938 \\ \hline \end{tabular}} \par \smallskip $^a$ {This abundance ratio is defined by Eq.~(\ref{eq_crit1}).} $^b$ {The elemental abundances are taken from Grevesse \& Sauval (\cite{Grevesse98}), but for C, N, O, Ne, Mg, Si, and Fe that are modified following the revision by Howeger (2001).} $^c$ {The elemental abundances are taken from Grevesse \& Sauval (\cite{Grevesse98}), but for N, O, and Ne following the revision by Caffau et~al. (\cite{Caffau08}, \cite{Caffau09}).}\\ For each mixture the solar total metallicity $Z_{\odot}$ (in mass fraction), the abundance ratios (C/O)$_{\odot}$ and (C/O)$_{{\rm crit},1}$ are indicated for comparison. The latter marks a critical boundary for the gas molecular chemistry in the range $3.2~\le~\log(T)~\le~3.6$. The C and O abundances are expressed as number fractions. \end{table}