Li transport and destruction in the solar tachocline
Toby Wood, UCSC
The differential rotation of the Sun's convection zone drives meridional circulations that burrow into the radiative interior. These circulations transport the convection zone's lithium down to levels where it can be burned, thus offering an explanation for the depletion of lithium in the convection zone.
Such meridional circulations also transport the convection zone's angular momentum and beryllium into the interior. Yet there is no evidence of solar beryllium depletion, and the convection zone's differential rotation has not spread significantly into the interior. The meridional circulations must therefore remained confined within a layer of thickness ~50Mm below the convection zone.
We will argue that the Ferraro constraint from a global-scale interior magnetic field is the only mechanism that can confine the meridional circulations, and then discuss how this magnetic field is prevented from diffusing into the convection zone.
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