Quasi-Gaussian statistics of hydrodynamic turbulence in 4 / 3 +epsilon dimensions

The statistics of two-dimensional turbulence exhibit a riddle: the scaling exponents in the regime of inverse energy cascade agree with the K41 theory of turbulence far from equilibrium, but the probability distribution functions are close to Gaussian-like in equilibrium. The skewness S identical with S3(R)/S(3/2)(2)(R) was measured as S (exp) approximately 0.03. This contradiction is lifted by understanding that two-dimensional turbulence is not far from a situation with equipartition of enstrophy, which exists as true thermodynamic equilibrium with K41 exponents in space dimension of d= 4 / 3. We evaluate the skewness S( d) for 4 / 3 < or =d< or =2, showing that S(d)=0 at d= 4 / 3, and that it remains as small as S (exp) in two dimensions.     

Lagrangian evolution of velocity increments in rotating turbulence: The effects of rotation on non-Gaussian statistics

The effects of rotation on the evolution of non-Gaussian statistics of velocity increments in rotating turbulence are studied in this paper. Following the Lagrangian evolution of the velocity increments over a fixed distance on an evolving material element, we derive a set of equations for the increments which provides a closed representation for the nonlinear interaction between the increments and the Coriolis force. Applying a restricted-Euler-type closure to the system, we obtain a system of ordinary differential equations which retains the effects of nonlinear interaction between the velocity increments and the Coriolis force. A priori tests using direct numerical simulation data show that the system captures the important dynamics of rotating turbulence. The system is integrated numerically starting from Gaussian initial data. It is shown that the system qualitatively reproduces a number of observations in rotating turbulence. The statistics of the velocity increments tend to Gaussian when strong rotation is imposed. The negative skewness in the longitudinal velocity increments is weakened by rotation. The model also predicts that the transverse velocity increment in the plane perpendicular to the rotation axis will have positive skewness, and that the skewness will depend on the Rossby number in a non-monotonic way. Based on the system, we identify the dynamical mechanisms leading to the observations.     

Conservative force fields in non-Gaussian statistics

In this Letter, we determine the κ-distribution function for a gas in the presence of an external field of force described by a potential U(r). In the case of a dilute gas, we show that the κ-power law distribution including the potential energy factor term can rigorously be deduced in the framework of kinetic theory with basis on the Vlasov equation. Such a result is significant as a preliminary to the discussion on the role of long range interactions in the Kaniadakis thermostatistics and the underlying kinetic theory.     

Lagrangian structure functions in hydrodynamic turbulence

Based on a solution of the Navier-Stokes equations for the inertial range of fully developed turbulence, a statistical theory is developed to determine the Lagrangian structure functions K _n (τ). Over times τ shorter than the large-scale correlation time τ_c, they obey scaling relations of the form K _n (τ) ∞ \(\tau ^{\zeta _n } \). Analytical expressions are derived for ζ _n . A detailed comparison between the theory and the experimental results presented in [1] demonstrates complete quantitative agreement. A new concept is introduced in turbulence theory: the correlation R _n (τ) between tracer-particle positions on a Lagrangian trajectory. It is shown that the position correlation functions R _n exhibit universal scaling behavior for n > 3.     

On developed hydrodynamic turbulence spectra

New results in the theory of the developed hydrodynamic turbulence spectra are reviewed. Within the limits of the hypothesis of interaction locality it is shown that the series of equations for the moments has a scale-invariant solution with the Kolmogorov index values. With the help of the Wyld diagram technique the equations in the Direct Interaction Approximation are formulated which accurately take into account the transfer effect and have the precise solution in the form of the Kolmogorov spectrum. In the framework of these equations the corrections to the Kolmogorov spectrum due to gyrotropy and compressibility are found.     

Velocity statistics distinguish quantum turbulence from classical turbulence

By analyzing trajectories of solid hydrogen tracers, we find that the distributions of velocity in decaying quantum turbulence in superfluid 4He are strongly non-Gaussian with 1/v(3) power-law tails. These features differ from the near-Gaussian statistics of homogenous and isotropic turbulence of classical fluids. We examine the dynamics of many events of reconnection between quantized vortices and show by simple scaling arguments that they produce the observed power-law tails.     

Exact scaling relations in relativistic hydrodynamic turbulence

We consider the steady state statistics of turbulence in general classes of dissipative hydrodynamic equations, where the fluctuations are sustained by a random source concentrated at large scales. It is well known that in some particular cases, such as non-relativistic incompressible turbulence, a Kolmogorov-type exact scaling relation for a correlation function holds. We show that all such scaling relations follow from a general relation on the current-density correlation function. The derivation does not require an energy cascade picture and suggests that this traditional interpretation of the Kolmogorov relation for incompressible turbulence may be misleading. Using this we derive exact scaling results for compressible turbulence in relativistic hydrodynamics, which reduce in the slow motion limit to the Kolmogorov relation. We discuss the experimental implications of the results.     

High order Lagrangian velocity statistics in turbulence

We report measurements of the Lagrangian velocity structure functions of orders 1 through 10 in a high Reynolds number (Taylor microscale Reynolds numbers of up to R(lambda) = 815 ) turbulence experiment. Passive tracer particles are tracked optically in three dimensions and in time, and velocities are calculated from the particle tracks. The structure function anomalous scaling exponents are measured both directly and using extended self-similarity and are found to be more intermittent than their Eulerian counterparts. Classical Kolmogorov inertial range scaling is also found for all structure function orders at times that trend downward as the order increases. The temporal shift of this classical scaling behavior is observed to saturate as the structure function order increases at times shorter than the Kolmogorov time scale.     

Wave turbulent statistics in non-weak wave turbulence

In wave turbulence, which is made by nonlinear interactions among waves, it has been believed that statistical properties are well described by the weak turbulence theory, where separation of linear and nonlinear time scales derived from weak nonlinearity is assumed. However, the separation of the time scales is often violated. To get rid of this inconsistency, closed equations are derived in wave turbulence without assuming the weak nonlinearity according to Direct-Interaction Approximation (DIA), which has been successful in Navier-Stokes turbulence. The DIA equations is a natural extension of the conventional kinetic equation to not-necessarily-weak wave turbulence.     

Isotropization of two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence in the direct cascade

We present results of numerical simulation of the direct cascade in two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence (with spatial resolution up to ). If at the earlier stage (at the time of order of the inverse pumping growth rate τ-Γ_max ^?1), the turbulence develops according to the same scenario as in the case of a freely decaying turbulence [1, 2]: quasi-singular distribution of di-vorticity are formed, which in k-space correspond to jets, leading to a strong turbulence anisotropy, then for times of the order of 10τ turbulence becomes almost isotropic. In particular, at these times any significant anisotropy in the angular fluctuations for the energy spectrum (for a fixed k) is not visible, while the probability distribution function of vorticity for large arguments has the exponential tail with the exponent linearly dependent on vorticity, in the agreement with the theoretical prediction [3].     

Origin of lagrangian intermittency in drift-wave turbulence

The Lagrangian velocity statistics of dissipative drift-wave turbulence are investigated. For large values of the adiabaticity (or small collisionality), the probability density function of the Lagrangian acceleration shows exponential tails, as opposed to the stretched exponential or algebraic tails, generally observed for the highly intermittent acceleration of Navier-Stokes turbulence. This exponential distribution is shown to be a robust feature independent of the Reynolds number. For small adiabaticity, algebraic tails are observed, suggesting the strong influence of point-vortex-like dynamics on the acceleration. A causal connection is found between the shape of the probability density function and the autocorrelation of the norm of the acceleration.     

Statistical properties of freely decaying two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence

Statistical characteristics of freely decaying two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence at high Reynolds numbers are numerically studied. In particular, numerical experiments (with resolution up to 8192 × 8192) provide a Kraichnan-type turbulence spectrum E _k ～ k ^?3. By means of spatial filtration, it is found that the main contribution to the spectrum comes from sharp vorticity gradients in the form of quasi-shocks. Such quasi-singularities are responsible for a strong angular dependence of the spectrum owing to well-localized (in terms of the angle) jets with minor and/or large overlapping. In each jet, the spectrum decreases as k ^?3. The behavior of the third-order structure function accurately agrees with the Kraichnan direct cascade concept corresponding to a constant enstrophy flux. It is shown that the power law exponents ξ _n for higher structure functions grow with n more slowly than the linear dependence, thus indicating turbulence intermittency.