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Updated: Jun 23, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability

Published on: March 3, 2017

Helicity cascades in rotating turbulence.

P D Mininni¹, A Pouquet

¹Departamento de Física, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, 1428 Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Physical Review. E, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics

|April 28, 2009

Summary

Helicity, a measure of velocity-vorticity correlations, significantly impacts rotating turbulence. At low Rossby numbers, helicity can dominate energy cascades to small scales, leading to non-Kolmogorovian spectra.

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Area of Science:

Fluid Dynamics
Turbulence Research
Computational Physics

Background:

Rotating turbulence is a complex phenomenon with applications in astrophysics and geophysics.
Helicity, defined as velocity-vorticity correlations, is a key invariant in ideal fluids but its role in turbulent flows is less understood.
Previous studies have explored rotating turbulence, but the specific influence of net helicity at low Rossby numbers requires further investigation.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the effect of helicity on the dynamics of rotating turbulence.
To analyze the energy and helicity cascades at low Rossby numbers (down to 0.02).
To develop a phenomenological model explaining the observed spectral properties.

Main Methods:

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) were employed to model rotating turbulent flows.
Simulations were conducted at low Rossby numbers to capture the relevant dynamics.
Analysis focused on energy and helicity spectra and their scaling properties.

Main Results:

The presence of net helicity was found to be crucial in the dynamics of rotating turbulence.
At small Rossby numbers, while energy cascades to large scales, helicity can dominate the cascade to small scales.
Observed spectral indices deviate from Kolmogorov predictions, indicating non-Kolmogorovian behavior.

Conclusions:

Helicity plays a dominant role in the small-scale dynamics of rotating turbulence at low Rossby numbers.
A direct cascade of helicity, moderated by wave-eddy interactions, explains the observed non-Kolmogorovian energy and helicity spectra.
These findings necessitate revised theoretical frameworks for understanding turbulent flows with significant helicity.