Misha Stepanov | publications | Phys. Rev. Lett. (2004)

A. M. Balk, G. Falkovich, M. G. Stepanov, Growth of density inhomogeneities in a flow of wave turbulence, Physical Review Letters 92 (24) 244504 (2004).

DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.244504
arXiv: nlin/0401012
PDF (108.41 KB)

We consider the flow being a superposition of random waves and describe the evolution of the spectrum of the passive scalar in the leading (fourth) order with respect to the wave amplitudes. We find that wave turbulence can produce an exponential growth of the passive scalar fluctuations when either both solenoidal and potential components are present in the flow or there are potential waves with the same frequencies but different wave numbers.