Unstable fixed points, heteroclinic cycles and exponential tails in turbulence production

Emily Stone, Philip Holmes

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

32 Scopus citations

Abstract

We show that solutions of ordinary differential equations possessing attracting heteroclinic cycles and subject to small random or periodic perturbations typically exhibit sharp events whose separations are well characterized by a probability distribution with an exponential tail. We review experimental evidence for such distributions in turbulent flows and indicate how our simple theory might be used to identify instability mechanisms.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)29-42
Number of pages14
JournalPhysics Letters, Section A: General, Atomic and Solid State Physics
Volume155
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 29 1991

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