Differential Rotation in the Solar Interior

Abstract

One of the big problems in stellar rotation which has been the object of much debate recently concerns the magnitude of the angular velocity in the central regions of the sun. It is a good example of our general ignorance of the distribution of angular momentum in the interiors of stars. There is good reason, of course, for this ignorance. One can’t make any direct observations and from a theoretical point of view there are many real problems such as the lack of a good theory of convection and meridian circulation, and our ignorance of the structure and magnitude of magnetic fields in the deep stellar interior. These problems among others make it very difficult, for example, to specify a surface condition on the angular velocity. It was pointed out recently (Clement, 1969; this paper is referred to hereinafter as Paper I) that such a condition might enable us to estimate the magnitude of the interior stellar rotation.