Dynamical Systems Approach to Turbulence

In recent decades, turbulence has evolved into a very active field of theoretical physics. The origin of this development is the approach to turbulence from the point of view of deterministic dynamical systems, and this book shows how concepts developed for low dimensional chaotic systems are applied to turbulent states. This book centers around a number of important simplified models for turbulent behavior in systems ranging from fluid motion (classical turbulence) to chemical reactions and interfaces in disordered systems. The theory of fractals and multifractals now plays a major role in turbulence research, and turbulent states are being studied as important dynamical states of matter occurring also in systems outside the realm of hydrodynamics. The book contains simplified models of turbulent behavior, notably shell models, coupled map lattices, amplitude equations and interface models.

This book, first published in 1998, treats turbulence from the point of view of dynamical systems. The exposition centres around a number of important simplified models for turbulent behaviour in systems ranging from fluid motion (classical turbulence) to chemical reactions and interfaces in disordered systems.The modern theory of fractals and multifractals now plays a major role in turbulence research, and turbulent states are being studied as important dynamical states of matter occurring also in systems outside the realm of hydrodynamics, i.e. chemical reactions or front propagation. The presentation relies heavily on simplified models of turbulent behaviour, notably shell models, coupled map lattices, amplitude equations and interface models, and the focus is primarily on fundamental concepts such as the differences between large and small systems, the nature of correlations and the origin of fractals and of scaling behaviour. This book will be of interest to graduate students and researchers interested in turbulence, from physics and applied mathematics backgrounds.

Introduction; 1. Turbulence and dynamical systems; 2. Phenomenology of turbulence; 3. Reduced models for hydrodynamic turbulence; 4. Turbulence and coupled map lattices; 5. Turbulence in the complex Ginzburg-Landau equation; 6. Predictability in high-dimensional systems; 7. Dynamics of interfaces; 8. Lagrangian chaos; 9. Chaotic diffusion; Appendix A. Hopf bifurcation; Appendix B. Hamiltonian systems; Appendix C. Characteristic and generalised Lyapunov exponents; Appendix D. Convective instabilities; Appendix E. Generalised fractal dimensions and multifractals; Appendix F. Multiaffine fields; Appendix G. Reduction to a finite-dimensional dynamical system; Appendix H. Directed percolation.

Fills a gap between the new fields of non-linear and chaotic dynamical systems, and the more traditional field of hydrodynamics and turbulence. The book contains the first coherent presentation of the applications of shell models to fully developed hydrodynamical turbulence.