A Non-Unitary Conformal Field Theory Approach to Two-Dimensional Turbulence

Abstract: Fluid turbulence is a far-from-equilibrium phenomenon and remains one of the most challenging problems in physics. Two-dimensional, fully developed turbulence may possess the largest possible symmetry, the conformal symmetry. We focus on the steady-state solution of two-dimensional bounded turbulent flow and propose a $c=0$ boundary logarithmic conformal field theory for the inverse energy cascade and another bulk conformal field theory in the classical limit $c\rightarrow -\infty$ for the direct enstrophy cascade. We show that these theories give rise to the Kraichnan-Batchelor scaling $k^{-3}$ and the Kolmogorov-Kraichnan scaling $k^{-5/3}$ for the enstrophy and the energy cascades, respectively, with the expected cascade directions, fluxes, and fractal dimensions. We also made some new predictions for future numerical simulations and experiments to test.