Direct Evidence of a Dual Cascade in Gravitational Wave Turbulence

We present the first direct numerical simulation of gravitational wave turbulence. General relativity equations are solved numerically in a periodic box with a diagonal metric tensor depending on two space coordinates only, $g_{ij} \equiv g_{ii}(x,y,t) \delta_{ij}$, and with an additional small-scale dissipative term. We limit ourselves to weak gravitational waves and to a freely decaying turbulence. We find that an initial metric excitation at intermediate wavenumber leads to a dual cascade of energy and wave action. When the direct energy cascade reaches the dissipative scales, a transition is observed in the temporal evolution of energy from a plateau to a power-law decay, while the inverse cascade front continues to propagate toward low wavenumbers. The wavenumber and frequency-wavenumber spectra are found to be compatible with the theory of weak wave turbulence and the characteristic time-scale of the dual cascade is that expected for four-wave resonant interactions. The simulation reveals that an initially weak gravitational wave turbulence tends to become strong as the inverse cascade of wave action progresses with a selective amplification of the fluctuations $g_{11}$ and $g_{22}$.