Robust wall states in rapidly rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

Abstract

We show, using direct numerical simulations with experimentally realizable boundary conditions, that wall modes in Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a rapidly rotating cylinder persist even very far from their linear onset. These nonlinear wall states survive in the presence of turbulence in the bulk and are robust with respect to changes in the shape of the boundary of the container. In this sense these modes behave much like the topologically protected states present in two-dimensional chiral systems even though rotating convection is a three-dimensional nonlinear driven dissipative system. We suggest that the robustness of this nonlinear mode may provide an explanation for the strong zonal flows observed recently in simulations and experiments on rapidly rotating convection at high Rayleigh number.

arXiv comment14 pages, 7 figures

References in corpus (9)

• Topological Boundary Modes in Isostatic Lattices
• Topological mechanics of gyroscopic metamaterials
• Odd viscosity in chiral active fluids
• Topological Origin of Equatorial Waves
• Topological waves in fluids with odd viscosity
• The role of Stewartson and Ekman layers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection
• Boundary Zonal Flow in Rotating Turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard Convection
• Topological localization in out-of-equilibrium dissipative systems
• Turbulent rotating convection confined in a slender cylinder: the sidewall circulation