Inverse turbulent cascades and conformally invariant curves

Abstract

We offer a new example of conformal invariance far from equilibrium -- the inverse cascade of Surface Quasi-Geostrophic (SQG) turbulence. We show that temperature isolines are statistically equivalent to curves that can be mapped into a one-dimensional Brownian walk (called Schramm-Loewner Evolution or SLE$_\kappa$). The diffusivity is close to $\kappa=4$, that is iso-temperature curves belong to the same universality class as domain walls in the O(2) spin model. Several statistics of temperature clusters and isolines are measured and shown to be consistent with the theoretical expectations for such a spin system at criticality. We also show that the direct cascade in two-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence is not conformal invariant. The emerging picture is that conformal invariance may be expected for inverse turbulent cascades of strongly interacting systems.