Rotation and Convection in the Sun

Higgs Centre colloquium

Rotation and Convection in the Sun

  • Event time: 1:00pm
  • Event date: 28th November 2014
  • Speaker: (Oxford)
  • Location: Higgs Centre Seminar Room, Room 4305,

Event details

Abstract

Helioseismology techniques have revealed the details of the Sun's internal rotation with remarkable precision.  The radiative zone is nearly uniformly rotating, whereas the convective zone differential rotation is generally constant on cones, dominated by its latitudinal (not cylindrical) gradient. 

In this talk, I will show how standard dynamics augmented by a few simple ideas naturally reproduces this pattern, and why uniform or cylindrical rotation is not possible.  The theory predicts very different internal rotation for stars (or suitable planets) lacking a radiative-convective boundary surface.