Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 18, 2026

Visually Based Characterization of the Incipient Particle Motion in Regular Substrates: From Laminar to Turbulent Conditions
Published on: February 22, 2018
Computation of anomalous scaling exponents of turbulence from self-similar instanton dynamics
1Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada-IMPA, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. alexei@impa.br
Abstract:
We show that multiscaling properties of developed turbulence in shell models, which lead to anomalous scaling exponents in the inertial range, are determined exclusively by instanton dynamics. Instantons represent correlated extreme events localized in space-time, whose structure is described by self-similar statistics with a single universal scaling exponent. We show that anomalous scaling exponents appear due to the process of instanton creation. A simplified model of instanton creation is suggested, which adequately describes this anomaly.
Related Concept Videos
Scaling
Dimensionless Groups in Fluid Mechanics
The Buckingham Pi Theorem
Modeling and Similitude
Navier–Stokes Equations
Euler's Equations of Motion
