A zero-mode mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking in a turbulent von Kármán flow

Abstract

We suggest that the dynamical spontaneous symmetry breaking reported in a turbulent swirling flow at $Re=40000$ by Cortet et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., 105, 214501 (2010) can be described through a continuous one parameter family transformation (amounting to a phase shift) of steady states and could be the analogue of the Goldstone mode of the vertical translational symmetry in an ideal system. We investigate a possible mechanism of emergence of such spontaneous symmetry breaking in a toy model of our out-equilibrium system, derived from its equilibrium counterpart. We show that the stationary states are solution of a linear differential equation. For a specific value of the Reynolds number, they are subject to a spontaneous symmetry breaking through a zero-mode mechanism. These zero-modes obey a Beltrami property and their spontaneous fluctuations can be seen as the "phonon of turbulence".

17 pages, 4 figures, submitted to New. J. Phys

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