323 research outputs found
Multiscaling in passive scalar advection as stochastic shape dynamics
The Kraichnan rapid advection model is recast as the stochastic dynamics of
tracer trajectories. This framework replaces the random fields with a small set
of stochastic ordinary differential equations. Multiscaling of correlation
functions arises naturally as a consequence of the geometry described by the
evolution of N trajectories. Scaling exponents and scaling structures are
interpreted as excited states of the evolution operator. The trajectories
become nearly deterministic in high dimensions allowing for perturbation theory
in this limit. We calculate perturbatively the anomalous exponent of the third
and fourth order correlation functions. The fourth order result agrees with
previous calculations.Comment: 14 pages, LaTe
A frictionless microswimmer
We investigate the self-locomotion of an elongated microswimmer by virtue of
the unidirectional tangential surface treadmilling. We show that the propulsion
could be almost frictionless, as the microswimmer is propelled forward with the
speed of the backward surface motion, i.e. it moves throughout an almost
quiescent fluid. We investigate this swimming technique using the special
spheroidal coordinates and also find an explicit closed-form optimal solution
for a two-dimensional treadmiler via complex-variable techniques.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Optimal rotations of deformable bodies and orbits in magnetic fields
Deformations can induce rotation with zero angular momentum where dissipation
is a natural ``cost function''. This gives rise to an optimization problem of
finding the most effective rotation with zero angular momentum. For certain
plastic and viscous media in two dimensions the optimal path is the orbit of a
charged particle on a surface of constant negative curvature with magnetic
field whose total flux is half a quantum unit.Comment: 4 pages revtex, 4 figures + animation in multiframe GIF forma
Statistical conservation laws in turbulent transport
We address the statistical theory of fields that are transported by a
turbulent velocity field, both in forced and in unforced (decaying)
experiments. We propose that with very few provisos on the transporting
velocity field, correlation functions of the transported field in the forced
case are dominated by statistically preserved structures. In decaying
experiments (without forcing the transported fields) we identify infinitely
many statistical constants of the motion, which are obtained by projecting the
decaying correlation functions on the statistically preserved functions. We
exemplify these ideas and provide numerical evidence using a simple model of
turbulent transport. This example is chosen for its lack of Lagrangian
structure, to stress the generality of the ideas
Statistical geometry in scalar turbulence
A general link between geometry and intermittency in passive scalar
turbulence is established. Intermittency is qualitatively traced back to events
where tracer particles stay for anomalousy long times in degenerate geometries
characterized by strong clustering. The quantitative counterpart is the
existence of special functions of particle configurations which are
statistically invariant under the flow. These are the statistical integrals of
motion controlling the scalar statistics at small scales and responsible for
the breaking of scale invariance associated to intermittency.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure
Invading interfaces and blocking surfaces in high dimensional disordered systems
We study the high-dimensional properties of an invading front in a disordered
medium with random pinning forces. We concentrate on interfaces described by
bounded slope models belonging to the quenched KPZ universality class. We find
a number of qualitative transitions in the behavior of the invasion process as
dimensionality increases. In low dimensions the system is characterized
by two different roughness exponents, the roughness of individual avalanches
and the overall interface roughness. We use the similarity of the dynamics of
an avalanche with the dynamics of invasion percolation to show that above
avalanches become flat and the invasion is well described as an annealed
process with correlated noise. In fact, for the overall roughness is
the same as the annealed roughness. In very large dimensions, strong
fluctuations begin to dominate the size distribution of avalanches, and this
phenomenon is studied on the Cayley tree, which serves as an infinite
dimensional limit. We present numerical simulations in which we measured the
values of the critical exponents of the depinning transition, both in finite
dimensional lattices with and on the Cayley tree, which support our
qualitative predictions. We find that the critical exponents in are very
close to their values on the Cayley tree, and we conjecture on this basis the
existence of a further dimension, where mean field behavior is obtained.Comment: 12 pages, REVTeX with 2 postscript figure
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