Gravity and a geometrisation of turbulence: an intriguing correspondence

Abstract

The dynamics of fluids is a long standing challenge that remained as an unsolved problem for centuries. Understanding its main features, chaos and turbulence, is likely to provide an understanding of the principles and non-linear dynamics of a large class of systems far from equilibrium. We consider a conceptually new viewpoint to study these features using black hole dynamics. Since the gravitational field is characterised by a curved geometry, the gravity variables provide a geometrical framework for studying the dynamics of fluids: a geometrisation of turbulence.

Keywords:

• gravity
• turbulence
• dynamics of fluids
• black hole horizons
• AdS/CFT correspondence

Acknowledgements

The work of Y.O. is supported in part by the Israeli Science Foundation Center of Excellence, by the Deutsch-Israelische Projektkooperation (DIP), by the US–Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF), and by the German–Israeli Foundation (GIF).