English

Turbulence: A Nonequilibrium Field Theory

Statistical Mechanics 2025-02-24 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory Chaotic Dynamics Fluid Dynamics

Abstract

Tools of quantum and statistical field theories have been successfully ported to turbulence. Here, we review the key results of turbulence field theory. \textit{Equilibrium field theory} describes thermalized spectrally-truncated Euler equation, where the equipartitioned Fourier modes generate zero energy flux. In contrast, \textit{nonequilibrium field theory} is employed for modelling of hydrodynamic turbulence (HDT), which has small viscosity. In HDT, viscosity renormalization yields wavenumber-dependent viscosity and energy spectrum. Field theory calculations also yields nonzero energy flux for HDT. These field theory computations have been generalized to other systems, e.g., passive scalar and magnetohydrodynamics. In this review, I cover these aspects, along with a brief coverage of weak turbulence and intermittency.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2501.19367,
  title  = {Turbulence: A Nonequilibrium Field Theory},
  author = {Mahendra Verma},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2501.19367},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

54 pages (Revised)

R2 v1 2026-06-28T21:28:10.878Z