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Locality of triad interaction and Kolmogorov constant in inertial wave turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2023

Vincent David*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau CEDEX, France Université Paris-Saclay, IPP, CNRS, Observatoire Paris-Meudon, France
Sébastien Galtier
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physique des Plasmas, École Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau CEDEX, France Université Paris-Saclay, IPP, CNRS, Observatoire Paris-Meudon, France Institut Universitaire de France
*
†Email address for correspondence: vincent.david@lpp.polytechnique.fr

Abstract

Using the theory of wave turbulence for rapidly rotating incompressible fluids derived by Galtier (Phys. Rev. E, vol. 68, 2003, 015301), we find the locality conditions that the solutions of the kinetic equation must satisfy. We show that the exact anisotropic Kolmogorov–Zakharov spectrum satisfies these conditions, which justifies the existence of this constant (positive) energy flux solution. Although a direct cascade is predicted in the transverse ($\perp$) and parallel ($\parallel$) directions to the rotation axis, we show numerically that in the latter case some triadic interactions can have a negative contribution to the energy flux, while in the former case all interactions contribute to a positive flux. Neglecting the parallel energy flux, we estimate the Kolmogorov constant at $C_K \simeq 0.749$. These results provide theoretical support for recent numerical and experimental studies.

Information

Type
JFM Rapids
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Domain of convergence (where the energy flux is finite) of the kinetic equation for power-law solutions $E_k \sim k_\perp ^{-x} \vert k_\| \vert ^{-y}$. The blue disc at the centre of the domain corresponds to the KZ spectrum.

Figure 1

Figure 2. (a) The kinetic equation (2.9) is integrated over a domain satisfying $\boldsymbol {k}_\perp + \boldsymbol {p}_\perp + \boldsymbol {q}_\perp = \boldsymbol {0}$, which corresponds to an infinite band where the boundaries are flattened triangles. Regions A, B and C (at infinity) are those for which the triadic interactions are non-local. We define $\tilde {q}_\perp = a - \tilde {p}_\perp$, for all $a \in [1,+\infty [$, to restrict the numerical integration to the domain $\varDelta _\perp$. (b) Representation of the non-local triadic interactions for regions A, B and C.

Figure 2

Table 1. Form of the different terms of the integral (2.9), in Region A, to the leading order.

Figure 3

Table 2. Form of the different terms of the integral (2.9), in Region B, to the leading order.

Figure 4

Table 3. Form of the different terms of the integral (2.9), in Region C, to the leading order.

Figure 5

Figure 3. (a) Integrand of $I_\perp$, which is always positive. (b) Integrand of $I_\|$, whose sign depends on the perpendicular wavenumbers. (c) Integrand of $I_\perp$ divided by the integrand of $I_\|$. The blue colour corresponds to negative values and the red colour to positive values. On the right, the dark colours testify that the integrand of $I_\perp$ is greater than that of $I_\|$ in modulus.

Figure 6

Figure 4. Convergence of the numerical estimate of $C_K$ as a function of $a$.