Spontaneous breaking of the spatial homogeneity symmetry in wave turbulence

Alan C. Newell, Benno Rumpf, Vladimir E. Zakharov

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

19 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report a surprising new result for wave turbulence which may have broader ramifications for general turbulence theories. Spatial homogeneity, the symmetry property that all statistical moments are functions only of the relative geometry of any configuration of points, can be spontaneously broken by the instability of the finite flux Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectrum in certain (usually one dimensional) situations. As a result, the nature of the statistical attractor changes dramatically, from a sea of resonantly interacting dispersive waves to an ensemble of coherent radiating pulses.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number194502
JournalPhysical review letters
Volume108
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - May 11 2012

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Physics and Astronomy

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