Quasi-Adiabatic Decay of Capillary Turbulence on the Charged Surface of Liquid Hydrogen

TL;DR

This paper investigates the decay process of capillary turbulence on charged liquid hydrogen surfaces, revealing a quasi-adiabatic decay mechanism with energy redistribution across frequencies, supported by experimental and numerical evidence.

Contribution

It introduces the concept of quasi-adiabatic decay to explain the spectral energy redistribution in capillary turbulence decay on charged liquid hydrogen surfaces.

Findings

Decay starts at high frequencies while low frequencies retain most energy.

Numerical models align well with experimental decay data.

Decay process involves fast nonlinear wave interactions and finite damping.

Abstract

We study the free decay of capillary turbulence on the charged surface of liquid hydrogen. We find that decay begins from the high frequency end of the spectral range, while most of the energy remains localized at low frequencies. The apparent discrepancy with the self-similar theory of nonstationary wave turbulent processes is accounted for in terms of a quasi-adiabatic decay wherein fast nonlinear wave interactions redistribute energy between frequency scales in the presence of finite damping at all frequencies. Numerical calculations based on this idea agree well with experimental data.