English

Multi-branch Shell Models of Two-Dimensional Turbulence exhibit Dual Energy-Enstrophy Cascades

Fluid Dynamics 2026-03-13 v1

Abstract

Classical shell models of turbulence do not display dual cascade - inverse of energy and direct of enstrophy - because they fail to reproduce the right thermal spectra. We propose here a multi-branch shell model, including a geometry hierarchically organized across scales, in order to overcome this limitation. For this model, we demonstrate numerically both the agreement of the thermal spectra with those of two-dimensional fluid equations and the emergence of a statistically stationary dual cascade. This construction also allows us to study local transfers and to investigate both self-similarity and non-Gaussianity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2603.11892,
  title  = {Multi-branch Shell Models of Two-Dimensional Turbulence exhibit Dual Energy-Enstrophy Cascades},
  author = {Flavio Tuteri and Sergio Chibbaro and Alexandros Alexakis},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2603.11892},
  year   = {2026}
}