Intermittency via Self-Similarity -- An Analytic Example

Abstract

Turbulence is known to show intermittency. That is, statistical properties vary with the length scale in a way not accounted for by statistical similarity where dimensionless ratios of moments are constant. Intermittency occurs even in the inertial range of isotropic turbulence, where physical intuition calls for a self-similar scale dependence. Perceived as a lack of overall scaling invariance, inertial range intermittency has become known as anomalous scaling. We present an analytic example demonstrating how anomalous scaling and self-similarity in the form of global scaling invariance can coexist within the same statistics. Whether we observe anomalous scaling or self-similarity depends on which variables we consider. Our example illustrates consequences of a symmetry, but is not meant as an intermittency model.