Symmetry breaking in a turbulent environment

TL;DR

This paper explores how symmetry breaking occurs in turbulent environments through two examples, revealing critical behaviors influenced by multiplicative noise and suggesting a new class of out-of-equilibrium phase transitions.

Contribution

It demonstrates symmetry-breaking transitions in turbulent flows and relates their critical behavior to multiplicative noise, proposing a new class of out-of-equilibrium phase transitions.

Findings

Symmetry breaking occurs in turbulent flows with similar critical exponents.

Critical behavior deviates from mean-field predictions due to multiplicative fluctuations.

Potential existence of a new class of out-of-equilibrium phase transitions controlled by multiplicative noise.

Abstract

In this work we investigate symmetry breaking in the presence of a turbulent environment. The transition from a symmetric state to a symmetry-breaking state is demonstrated using two examples: (i) the transition of a two-dimensional flow to a three dimensional flow as the fluid layer thickness is varied and (ii) the dynamo instability in a thin layer flow as the magnetic Reynolds number is varied. We show that these examples have similar critical exponents that differ from the mean-field predictions. The critical behavior can be related to the multiplicative nature of the fluctuations and can be predicted in certain limits using results from the statistical properties of random interfaces. Our results indicate the possibility of existence of a new class of out-of-equilibrium phase transition controlled by the multiplicative noise.