Solid Body Rotation of the Solar Core in the Liquid Metallic Hydrogen Solar Model: Consequences for the Perihelion Precession of Mercury and the Possibility that the Dzhanibekov Effect can Account for the Inversion of Polarization Associated with the Solar Cycle.

The solar core exhibits solid body rotation,¹ a phenomenon best understood in the context of the liquid metallic hydrogen model.² The rotation rate is said to be extremely slow at 430 nHz,¹ but this value can be questioned, as perhaps impossible to properly ascertain from helioseismology, given the essentially spherical nature of the core. Still, the core might in truth be imperceptibly ellipsoidal (much like the body of the Sun³) with rotation about the smaller z axis, and with slightly elongated and asymmetric x, y axes with respect to mass. It is anticipated that friction during rotation renders the z axis unstable. In this light, under suitable conditions solid body rotation is well-known to be associated with the Dzhanibekov effect. Invocation of a similar effect could well account for the 11 year polarity inversion observed and may act to trigger the presence of sun spots as intercalate regions within the convection zone are de-gassed. Furthermore, it may be appropriate to revisit our understanding of the causal effect for the perihelion precession of Mercury. The presence of an ellipsoidal core in the Sun could well account for the observed effect, without the need to invoke General Relativity. This is reminiscent of the classical solution by Paul Gerber in 1898⁴ and of the effect that an intra-mercurial planet could have had on the precession of Mercury, as proposed by Le Verrier. ¹Astrophys. J. 1998, 505(1), 390–417; ²Progr. Phys. 2013, 4, 90-142; ³A & A 2000, 355, 365–374, ⁴ Zeitschrift für Math. und Physik 1998, 43, 93-104.