Density and tracer statistics in compressible turbulence: phase transition to multifractality

TL;DR

This paper investigates how compressible turbulence causes a phase transition in density and tracer distributions from smooth to multifractal, with implications for astrophysics and engineering.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for understanding the phase transition to multifractality in compressible turbulence and provides a method to calculate fractal dimensions from data.

Findings

Density and tracer fields coincide at low Mach numbers.

Fields undergo a phase transition to multifractality at higher Mach numbers.

Derived an explicit expression for the spectrum of fractal dimensions.

Abstract

We study the statistics of fluid (gas) density and concentration of passive tracer particles (dust) in compressible turbulence. We raise the question of whether the fluid density which is an active field that reacts back on the transporting flow and the passive concentration of tracers must coincide in the steady state, which we demonstrate to be crucial both theoretically and experimentally. The fields' coincidence is provable at small Mach numbers, however at finite Mach numbers the assumption of mixing is needed, not evident due to the possibility of self-organization. Irrespective of whether the fields coincide we obtain a number of rigorous conclusions on both fields. As Ma increases the fields in the inertial range go through a phase transition from a finite continuous smooth to a singular multifractal distribution. We propose a way to calculate fractal dimensions from numerical or experimental data. We derive a simple expression for the spectrum of fractal dimensions of isothermal turbulence and describe limitations of lognormality. The expression depends on a single parameter: the scaling exponent of the density spectrum. We propose a mechanism for the phase transition of concentration to multifractality. We demonstrate that the pair-correlation function is invariant under the action of the probability density function of the inter-pair distance that has the Markov property implying applicability of the Kraichnan turbulence model. We use the model to derive an explicit expression for the tracers pair correlation that demonstrates their smooth transition to multifractality and confirms the transition's mechanism. Our results are of potentially important implications on astrophysical problems such as star formation as well as on technological applications such as supersonic combustion. As an example we demonstrate strong increase of planetesimals formation rate at the transition.