Phase transitions and flux-loop metastable states in rotating turbulence

Abstract: By using direct numerical simulations of up to a record resolution of 512x512x32768 grid points we discover the existence of a new metastable out-of-equilibrium state in rotating turbulence. We scan the phase space by varying both the rotation rate (proportional to the inverse of the Rossby number, $Ro$) and the dimensionless aspect ratio, $\lambda=H/L$, where $L$ and $H$ are the sizes of the domain perpendicular and parallel to the direction of rotation, respectively. We show the existence of three turbulent phases. For small $Ro$ but finite $\lambda$, we have a split cascade where the injected energy is transferred to both large and small scales. For large $\lambda$ and finite $Ro$ there is no inverse cascade and the energy is transferred forward in Fourier space only. Surprisingly, between these two regimes, a third phase is observed as reported here for the first time. Consequently, for certain intervals of $Ro$ and $\lambda$, energy is no longer accumulated at arbitrarily large scales, rather it stops at some characteristic intermediate length-scales from where it is then redistributed forward in Fourier space, leading to a flux-loop mechanism where the flow is out of equilibrium with vanishing net flux, and non-vanishing heterochiral and homochiral sub-fluxes. The system is further characterized by the presence of metastability and critical slowing down, explaining why previous experiments and numerical simulations were not able to detect this phenomenon, requiring extremely long observation time and huge computational resources.