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

Abstract

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