Nonuniversal power-law spectra in turbulent systems

Abstract

Turbulence is generally associated with universal power-law spectra in scale ranges without significant drive or damping. Although many examples of turbulent systems do not exhibit such an inertial range, power-law spectra may still be observed. As a simple model for such situations, a modified version of the Kuramoto-Sivashinsky equation is studied. By means of semi-analytical and numerical studies, one finds power laws with nonuniversal exponents in the spectral range for which the ratio of nonlinear and linear time scales is (roughly) scale-independent.