Self-consistent theory of turbulent transport in the solar tachocline

Abstract

Aims.We provide a consistent theory of the tachocline confinement (or anisotropic momentum transport) within a hydrodynamical turbulence model. The goal is to explain helioseismological data, which show that the solar tachocline thickness is at most 5% of the solar radius, despite the fact that, due to radiative spreading, this transition layer should have thickened to a much more significant value during the sun's evolution.