On the elimination of the sweeping interactions from theories of hydrodynamic turbulence

In this paper, we revisit the claim that the Eulerian and quasi-Lagrangian same time correlation tensors are equal. This statement allows us to transform the results of an MSR quasi-Lagrangian statistical theory of hydrodynamic turbulence back to the Eulerian representation. We define a hierarchy of homogeneity symmetries between incremental homogeneity and global homogeneity. It is shown that both the elimination of the sweeping interactions and the derivation of the 4/5-law require a homogeneity assumption stronger than incremental homogeneity but weaker than global homogeneity. The quasi-Lagrangian transformation, on the other hand, requires an even stronger homogeneity assumption which is many-time rather than one-time but still weaker than many-time global homogeneity. We argue that it is possible to relax this stronger assumption and still preserve the conclusions derived from theoretical work based on the quasi-Lagrangian transformation.Comment: v1: submitted to Physica D. v2: major revisions; resubmitted to Physica D. v3: minor revisions requested by referee

Locality and stability of the cascades of two-dimensional turbulence

We investigate and clarify the notion of locality as it pertains to the cascades of two-dimensional turbulence. The mathematical framework underlying our analysis is the infinite system of balance equations that govern the generalized unfused structure functions, first introduced by L'vov and Procaccia. As a point of departure we use a revised version of the system of hypotheses that was proposed by Frisch for three-dimensional turbulence. We show that both the enstrophy cascade and the inverse energy cascade are local in the sense of non-perturbative statistical locality. We also investigate the stability conditions for both cascades. We have shown that statistical stability with respect to forcing applies unconditionally for the inverse energy cascade. For the enstrophy cascade, statistical stability requires large-scale dissipation and a vanishing downscale energy dissipation. A careful discussion of the subtle notion of locality is given at the end of the paper.Comment: v2: 23 pages; 4 figures; minor revisions; resubmitted to Phys. Rev.

Recent Developments in Understanding Two-dimensional Turbulence and the Nastrom-Gage Spectrum

Two-dimensional turbulence appears to be a more formidable problem than three-dimensional turbulence despite the numerical advantage of working with one less dimension. In the present paper we review recent numerical investigations of the phenomenology of two-dimensional turbulence as well as recent theoretical breakthroughs by various leading researchers. We also review efforts to reconcile the observed energy spectrum of the atmosphere (the spectrum) with the predictions of two-dimensional turbulence and quasi-geostrophic turbulence.Comment: Invited review; accepted by J. Low Temp. Phys.; Proceedings for Warwick Turbulence Symposium Workshop on Universal features in turbulence: from quantum to cosmological scales, 200

Multi-locality and fusion rules on the generalized structure functions in two-dimensional and three-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence

Using the fusion rules hypothesis for three-dimensional and two-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence, we generalize a previous non-perturbative locality proof to multiple applications of the nonlinear interactions operator on generalized structure functions of velocity differences. We shall call this generalization of non-perturbative locality to multiple applications of the nonlinear interactions operator "multilocality". The resulting cross-terms pose a new challenge requiring a new argument and the introduction of a new fusion rule that takes advantage of rotational symmetry. Our main result is that the fusion rules hypothesis implies both locality and multilocality in both the IR and UV limits for the downscale energy cascade of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence and the downscale enstrophy cascade and inverse energy cascade of two-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence. We stress that these claims relate to non-perturbative locality of generalized structure functions on all orders, and not the term by term perturbative locality of diagrammatic theories or closure models that involve only two-point correlation and response functions.Comment: 25 pages, 24 figures, resubmitted to Physical Review

Is the subdominant part of the energy spectrum due to downscale energy cascade hidden in quasi-geostrophic turbulence?

In systems governing two-dimensional turbulence, surface quasi-geostrophic turbulence, (more generally $\alpha$-turbulence), two-layer quasi-geostrophic turbulence, etc., there often exist two conservative quadratic quantities, one ``energy''-like and one ``enstrophy''-like. In a finite inertial range there are in general two spectral fluxes, one associated with each conserved quantity. We derive here an inequality comparing the relative magnitudes of the ``energy'' and ``enstrophy'' fluxes for finite or infinitesimal dissipations, and for hyper or hypo viscosities. When this inequality is satisfied, as is the case of 2D turbulence,where the energy flux contribution to the energy spectrum is small, the subdominant part will be effectively hidden. In sQG turbulence, it is shown that the opposite is true: the downscale energy flux becomes the dominant contribution to the energy spectrum. A combination of these two behaviors appears to be the case in 2-layer QG turbulence, depending on the baroclinicity of the system.Comment: 23 pages; accepted at Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems B; Major revisio