On the Anomalous Rotation of the Sun

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Abstract
The requirements of Jeans' theory of the anomalous solar rotation are not in accord with the facts of solar magnetism. A new theory is worked out which attributes the anomaly to atmospheric motions arising from the interaction of ions with the solar magnetic field and an assumed electric field. Observations of the solar atmosphere are made only in those regions where the gaseous pressure is such that the ion free paths are long. Ions of both kinds which execute long free paths in crossed electric and magnetic fields are swept in the same direction and give rise to a mass motion. This superimposed drift of the solar atmosphere is shown to account for the rotational anomaly and the calculated variation of the angular velocity with latitude is of the observed form. The theory requires that the sun possess a radial electric field having a sign and distribution similar to that observed on the earth.