Axisymmetric flows on the torus geometry

TL;DR

This paper provides analytical solutions for axisymmetric flows on a torus, revealing unique spectral properties, phase transitions in fluid stripe configurations, and conditions for instability, supported by numerical validation.

Contribution

It introduces new analytical solutions for axisymmetric flows on a torus, including sound propagation, viscous damping, and phase transition analysis of fluid stripes, highlighting effects of curvature and symmetry breaking.

Findings

Distinct eigenfrequency spectrum due to torus curvature

Identification of a second-order phase transition in stripe equilibrium

Derivation of instability conditions for non-axisymmetric stripes

Abstract

We present a series of analytically solvable axisymmetric flows on the torus geometry. For the single-component flows, we describe the propagation of sound waves for perfect fluids, as well as the viscous damping of shear and longitudinal waves for isothermal and thermal fluids. Unlike the case of planar geometry, the non-uniform curvature on a torus necessitates a distinct spectrum of eigenfrequencies and their corresponding basis functions. This has several interesting consequences, including breaking the degeneracy between even and odd modes, a lack of periodicity even in the flows of perfect fluids and the loss of Galilean invariance for flows with velocity components in the poloidal direction. For the multi-component flows, we study the equilibrium configurations and relaxation dynamics of axisymmetric fluid stripes, described using the Cahn-Hilliard equation. We find a second-order phase transition in the equilibrium location of the stripe as a function of its area $\Delta A$. This phase transition leads to a complex dependence of the Laplace pressure on $\Delta A$. We also derive the underdamped oscillatory dynamics as the stripes approach equilibrium. Furthermore, relaxing the assumption of axial symmetry, we derive the conditions under which the stripes become unstable. In all cases, the analytical results are confirmed numerically using a finite-difference Navier-Stokes solver.