Published 1993 | Version v1
Book

Three religious rules of nonlinear physics

Creators

  • 1. Univ. of Texas, Austin, TX (United States)

Description

The theory of strong turbulence is a part of nonlinear physics. The three open-quotes religious rulesclose quotes of nonlinear physics present a heuristic viewpoint that can be used to qualitatively predict the evolution of nonlinear systems. These rules are as follows. (1) The basic results can be obtained from the conservation laws. If some kind of process is not forbidden by these laws, it generally occurs. If it doesn't this means that another conserved quantity imposing the constraint is being missed. (2) The universal law of open-quotes 20/80close quotes takes place: 20% of people drink 80% of beer. In other words, interesting processes usually take place in localized structures occupying a small share of volume. The localized structures interact weakly and therefore maintain their identity. For this reason they are universal and can be investigated. (3) The open-quotes general situationclose quotes is nonintegrable. The special case of exact solutions in integrable models represent a degenerate (nontypical) behavior. Particular exact solutions cannot be taken as representative solutions unless they are attractors. The presence of attractors simplifies the analysis and clarifies the situation. In plasma physics one deals with infinite-dimensional (PDE) systems distributed in space. The application of the religious rules 1 and 2 then leads to the following. If the conservation laws do not prohibit the development of singularities they do occur. If the singularities are prohibited, then stable localized structures take place. Solitons (or solitary waves) and vortices are examples of such stable structures. Wave collapse, wave-breaking, shock waves, magnetic reconnection and singularities in ideal Euler liquid are the examples of singularities. According to rule 3, exact solutions are very essential if they are attractors in some sense. Analysis of this problem is presented for solitons in nonintegrable wave systems and 2D vortices

Part of:
1993 International Sherwood fusion theory conference

Additional details

Publishing Information

Publisher
Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Imprint Place
Cambridge, MA (United States)
Imprint Title
1993 International Sherwood fusion theory conference
Imprint Pagination
253 p.
Journal Page Range
p. 2C9.

Conference

Title
International Sherwood fusion theory conference.
Dates
29-31 Mar 1993.
Place
Newport, RI (United States).

INIS

Country of Publication
United States
Country of Input or Organization
United States
INIS RN
25027069
Subject category
S70: PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY;
Resource subtype / Literary indicator
Conference
Descriptors DEI
ATTRACTORS; CONSERVATION LAWS; MAGNETIC RECONNECTION; MATHEMATICAL MODELS; NONLINEAR PROBLEMS; PLASMA DISRUPTION; SOLITONS; TURBULENCE
Descriptors DEC
QUASI PARTICLES

Optional Information

Secondary number(s)
CONF-930359--.