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Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Reorientation of the large-scale circulation in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection
Eric Brown1, Alexei Nikolaenko, Guenter Ahlers
1Department of Physics and iQUEST, University of California, Santa Barbara, California 93106, USA.
Abstract:
We present measurements of the orientation theta0(t) of the large-scale circulation (LSC) of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection in cylindrical cells of aspect ratio 1. Theta0(t) undergoes irregular reorientations. It contains reorientation events by rotation through angles delta theta with a monotonically decreasing probability distribution p(delta theta), and by cessations (where the LSC stops temporarily) with a uniform p(delta theta). Reorientations have Poissonian statistics in time. The amplitude of the LSC and the magnitude of the azimuthal rotation rate have a negative correlation.
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