The aim of this paper is to investigate whether there are any 11-yr or quasi-biennial solar cycle-related variations in solar rotational splitting frequencies of low-degree solar p modes .
Although no 11-yr signals were observed , variations on a shorter timescale ( \sim 2 yrs ) were apparent .
We show that the variations arose from complications/artifacts associated with the realization noise in the data and the process by which the data were analyzed .
More specifically , the realization noise was observed to have a larger effect on the rotational splittings than accounted for by the formal uncertainties .
When used to infer the rotation profile of the Sun these variations are not important .
The outer regions of the solar interior can be constrained using higher-degree modes .
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 1 \sigma uncertainties .
By contrast , in asteroseismology , only low- l modes are visible and so higher- l modes can not 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 .