Spontaneous Breaking of the Spatial Homogeneity Symmetry in Wave Turbulence
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.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- May 2012
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.194502
- Bibcode:
- 2012PhRvL.108s4502N
- Keywords:
-
- 47.27.E-;
- 47.27.De;
- 52.35.-g;
- 92.10.-c;
- Turbulence simulation and modeling;
- Coherent structures;
- Waves oscillations and instabilities in plasmas and intense beams;
- Physical oceanography