Computing the Scaling Exponents in Fluid Turbulence from First Principles: Demonstration of Multi-scaling

Abstract

This manuscript is a draft of work in progress, meant for network distribution only. It will be updated to a formal preprint when the numerical calculations will be accomplished. In this draft we develop a consistent closure procedure for the calculation of the scaling exponents $ζ_n$ of the $n$th order correlation functions in fully developed hydrodynamic turbulence, starting from first principles. The closure procedure is constructed to respect the fundamental rescaling symmetry of the Euler equation. The starting point of the procedure is an infinite hierarchy of coupled equations that are obeyed identically with respect to scaling for any set of scaling exponents $ζ_n$. This hierarchy was discussed in detail in a recent publication [V.S. L'vov and I. Procaccia, Phys. Rev. E, submitted, chao-dyn/9707015]. The scaling exponents in this set of equations cannot be found from power counting. In this draft we discuss in detail low order non-trivial closures of this infinite set of equations, and prove that these closures lead to the determination of the scaling exponents from solvability conditions. The equations under consideration after this closure are nonlinear integro-differential equations, reflecting the nonlinearity of the original Navier-Stokes equations. Nevertheless they have a very special structure such that the determination of the scaling exponents requires a procedure that is very similar to the solution of linear homogeneous equations, in which amplitudes are determined by fitting to the boundary conditions in the space of scales. The re-normalization scale that i necessary for any anomalous scaling appears at this point. The Holder inequalities on the scaling exponents select the renormalizaiton scale as the outer scale of turbulence $L$.