Probing small-scale intermittency with a fluctuation theorem

Abstract

We characterize statistical properties of the flow field in developed turbulence using concepts from stochastic thermodynamics. On the basis of data from a free air-jet experiment, we demonstrate how the dynamic fluctuations induced by small-scale intermittency generate analogs of entropy-consuming trajectories with sufficient weight to make fluctuation theorems observable at the macroscopic scale. We propose an integral fluctuation theorem for the entropy production associated with the stochastic evolution of velocity increments along the eddy-hierarchy and demonstrate its extreme sensitivity to the accurate description of the tails of the velocity distributions.