Pattern formation by turbulent cascades

Abstract

Fully developed turbulence is a universal and scale-invariant chaotic state characterized by an energy cascade from large to small scales where the cascade is eventually arrested by dissipation. In this article, we show how to harness these seemingly structureless turbulent cascades to generate patterns. Pattern formation entails a process of wavelength selection, which can usually be traced to the linear instability of a homogeneous state. By contrast, the mechanism we propose here is fully non-linear. It is triggered by a non-dissipative arrest of turbulent cascades: energy piles up at an intermediate scale, which is neither the system size nor the smallest scales at which energy is usually dissipated. Using a combination of theory and large-scale simulations, we show that the tunable wavelength of these cascade-induced patterns can be set by a non-dissipative transport coefficient called odd viscosity, ubiquitous in chiral fluids ranging from bio-active to quantum systems. Odd viscosity, which acts as a scale-dependent Coriolis-like force, leads to a two-dimensionalization of the flow at small scales, in contrast with rotating fluids where a two-dimensionalization occurs at large scales. Beyond odd-viscosity fluids, we discuss how cascade-induced patterns can arise in natural systems including atmospheric flows, stellar plasma such as the solar wind~, or the pulverization and coagulation of objects or droplets where mass rather than energy cascades.

23 pages, 8 figures

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Cited by in corpus (17)

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• Observation of an Inverse Turbulent-Wave Cascade in a Driven Quantum Gas
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• Observable signatures of Hall viscosity in lowest Landau level superfluids
• Odd viscosity suppresses intermittency in direct turbulent cascades
• Chirality and odd mechanics in active columnar phases
• Dissipation at limited resolutions: Power law and detection of hidden dissipative scales
• Odd viscous flow past a sphere at low but nonzero Reynolds numbers
• Symmetry-driven Phononic Metamaterials
• Emergent Turbulence in Nonlinear Gravity
• Mesoscale simulation model for odd fluids
• Universal Routing of Light via Optical Thermodynamics
• Inverse Energy Cascade in Turbulent Taylor-Couette Flows
• Dumbbell dimer dynamics in three-dimensional chiral fluids
• Nonequilibrium plasmon liquid in a Josephson junction chain
• Dynamical arrest in active nematic turbulence
• Turbulent cascade arrests and the formation of intermediate-scale condensates