A model differential equation for turbulence

A phenomenological turbulence model in which the energy spectrum obeys a nonlinear diffusion equation is presented. This equation respects the scaling properties of the original Navier-Stokes equations and it has the Kolmogorov -5/3 cascade and the thermodynamic equilibrium spectra as exact steady state solutions. The general steady state in this model contains a nonlinear mixture of the constant-flux and thermodynamic components. Such "warm cascade" solutions describe the bottleneck phenomenon of spectrum stagnation near the dissipative scale. Self-similar solutions describing a finite-time formation of steady cascades are analysed and found to exhibit nontrivial scaling behaviour.Comment: April 10 2003 Updated April 22 2003, 9 pages revtex4, 9 figures Added some figures, additional references and corrected typo

Wave turbulence description of interacting particles: Klein-Gordon model with a Mexican-hat potential

In field theory, particles are waves or excitations that propagate on the fundamental state. In experiments or cosmological models one typically wants to compute the out-of-equilibrium evolution of a given initial distribution of such waves. Wave Turbulence deals with out-of-equilibrium ensembles of weakly nonlinear waves, and is therefore well-suited to address this problem. As an example, we consider the complex Klein-Gordon equation with a Mexican-hat potential. This simple equation displays two kinds of excitations around the fundamental state: massive particles and massless Goldstone bosons. The former are waves with a nonzero frequency for vanishing wavenumber, whereas the latter obey an acoustic dispersion relation. Using wave turbulence theory, we derive wave kinetic equations that govern the coupled evolution of the spectra of massive and massless waves. We first consider the thermodynamic solutions to these equations and study the wave condensation transition, which is the classical equivalent of Bose-Einstein condensation. We then focus on nonlocal interactions in wavenumber space: we study the decay of an ensemble massive particles into massless ones. Under rather general conditions, these massless particles accumulate at low wavenumber. We study the dynamics of waves coexisting with such a strong condensate, and we compute rigorously a nonlocal Kolmogorov-Zakharov solution, where particles are transferred non-locally to the condensate, while energy cascades towards large wave numbers through local interactions. This nonlocal cascading state constitute the intermediate asymptotics between the initial distribution of waves and the thermodynamic state reached in the long-time limit

The life-cycle of drift-wave turbulence driven by small scale instability

We demonstrate theoretically and numerically the zonal-flow/drift-wave feedback mechanism for the LH transition in an idealised model of plasma turbulence driven by a small scale instability. Zonal flows are generated by a secondary modulational instability of the modes which are directly driven by the primary instability. The zonal flows then suppress the small scales thereby arresting the energy injection into the system, a process which can be described using nonlocal wave turbulence theory. Finally, the arrest of the energy input results in saturation of the zonal flows at a level which can be estimated from the theory and the system reaches stationarity without damping of the large scales.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figure

Rossby and Drift Wave Turbulence and Zonal Flows: the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima model and its extensions

A detailed study of the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima model and its extensions is presented. These simple nonlinear partial differential equations suggested for both Rossby waves in the atmosphere and also drift waves in a magnetically-confined plasma exhibit some remarkable and nontrivial properties, which in their qualitative form survive in more realistic and complicated models, and as such form a conceptual basis for understanding the turbulence and zonal flow dynamics in real plasma and geophysical systems. Two idealised scenarios of generation of zonal flows by small-scale turbulence are explored: a modulational instability and turbulent cascades. A detailed study of the generation of zonal flows by the modulational instability reveals that the dynamics of this zonal flow generation mechanism differ widely depending on the initial degree of nonlinearity. A numerical proof is provided for the extra invariant in Rossby and drift wave turbulence -zonostrophy and the invariant cascades are shown to be characterised by the zonostrophy pushing the energy to the zonal scales. A small scale instability forcing applied to the model demonstrates the well-known drift wave - zonal flow feedback loop in which the turbulence which initially leads to the zonal flow creation, is completely suppressed and the zonal flows saturate. The turbulence spectrum is shown to diffuse in a manner which has been mathematically predicted. The insights gained from this simple model could provide a basis for equivalent studies in more sophisticated plasma and geophysical fluid dynamics models in an effort to fully understand the zonal flow generation, the turbulent transport suppression and the zonal flow saturation processes in both the plasma and geophysical contexts as well as other wave and turbulence systems where order evolves from chaos.Comment: 64 pages, 33 figure

Breaking of Josephson junction oscillations and onset of quantum turbulence in Bose-Einstein condensates

We analyse the formation and the dynamics of quantum turbulence in a two-dimensional Bose-Einstein condensate with a Josephson junction barrier modeled using the Gross-Pitaevskii equation. We show that a sufficiently high initial superfluid density imbalance leads to randomisation of the dynamics and generation of turbulence, namely, the formation of a quasi-1D dispersive shock consisting of a train of grey solitons that eventually breakup into chains of distinct quantised vortices of alternating vorticity followed by random turbulent flow. The Josephson junction barrier allows us to create two turbulent regimes: acoustic turbulence on one side and vortex turbulence on the other. Throughout the dynamics, a key mechanism for mixing these two regimes is the transmission of vortex dipoles through the barrier: we analyse this scattering process in terms of the barrier parameters, sound emission and vortex annihilation. Finally, we discuss how the vortex turbulence evolves for long times, presenting the optimal configurations for the density imbalance and barrier height in order to create the desired turbulent regimes which last as long as possible