Abstract
The internal angular velocity of the Sun is estimated from observations of apparent rotational splitting of low-order low-degree global oscillations detected in fluctuations in the limb-darkening function. A sidereal rotation of 3 µHz is inferred for the deep interior; this is more than six times greater than the equatorial rotation frequency of the photosphere. The inferred angular velocity distribution does not vary strongly with latitude, and yields a gravitational quadrupole moment J2≃3.6×10−6. When combined with the results of planetary radar observations to determine (2−β+2γ)/3, a combination of Eddington–Robertson post-newtonian parameters which in general relativity is unity, a value of about 0.994 (±0.012) is thus obtained.
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Gough, D. Internal rotation and gravitational quadrupole moment of the Sun. Nature 298, 334–339 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1038/298334a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/298334a0
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