Misleading variations in estimated rotational frequency splittings of solar p modes: Consequences for helioseismology and asteroseismology

While the variations in the low-l splittings do make large differences to the inferred rotation rate of the core, the core rotation rate is so poorly constrained, even by low-l modes, that the different inferred rotation profiles still agree within their respective 1s uncertainties. By contrast, in asteroseismology, only low-l modes are visible and so higher l modes cannot be used to constrain the rotation profile of stars.

Furthermore, we usually only have one data set from which to measure the observed low-l splitting. In such circumstances the inferred internal rotation rate of a main-sequence star could differ significantly from estimates of the surface rotation rate, hence leading to spurious conclusions. Therefore, extreme care must be taken when using only the splittings of low-l modes to draw conclusions about the average internal rotation rate of a star.