Measuring the properties of homogeneous turbulence in curved spacetimes

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Megale, Rita, Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro, Ficarra, Giuseppe, Imbrogno, Mario, Meringolo, Claudio, Primavera, Leonardo, Rezzolla, Luciano, Servidio, Sergio
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
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author Megale, Rita
Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro
Ficarra, Giuseppe
Imbrogno, Mario
Meringolo, Claudio
Primavera, Leonardo
Rezzolla, Luciano
Servidio, Sergio
author_facet Megale, Rita
Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro
Ficarra, Giuseppe
Imbrogno, Mario
Meringolo, Claudio
Primavera, Leonardo
Rezzolla, Luciano
Servidio, Sergio
contents Turbulence in curved spacetimes in general, and in the vicinity of black holes (BHs) in particular, represents a poorly understood phenomenon that is often analysed employing techniques developed for flat spacetimes. We here propose a novel approach to study turbulence in strong gravitational fields that is based on the computation of structure functions on generic manifolds and is thus applicable to arbitrary curved spacetimes. In particular, we introduce, for the first time, a formalism to compute the characteristic properties of turbulence, such as the second-order structure function or the power spectral density, in terms of proper lengths and volumes and not in terms of coordinate lengths and volumes, as customarily done. By applying the new approach to the turbulent rest-mass density field from simulations of magnetised disc accretion onto a Kerr BH, we inspect in a rigorous way turbulence in regions close to the event horizon, but also in the disc, the wind, and in the jet. We demonstrate that the new approach can capture the typical behavior of an inertial-range cascade and that differences up to $40-80\%$ emerge in the vicinity of the event horizon with respect to the standard flat-spacetime approach. While these differences become smaller at larger distances, our study highlights that special care needs to be paid when analysing turbulence in strongly curved spacetimes.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2509_04566
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Measuring the properties of homogeneous turbulence in curved spacetimes
Megale, Rita
Cruz-Osorio, Alejandro
Ficarra, Giuseppe
Imbrogno, Mario
Meringolo, Claudio
Primavera, Leonardo
Rezzolla, Luciano
Servidio, Sergio
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Plasma Physics
Turbulence in curved spacetimes in general, and in the vicinity of black holes (BHs) in particular, represents a poorly understood phenomenon that is often analysed employing techniques developed for flat spacetimes. We here propose a novel approach to study turbulence in strong gravitational fields that is based on the computation of structure functions on generic manifolds and is thus applicable to arbitrary curved spacetimes. In particular, we introduce, for the first time, a formalism to compute the characteristic properties of turbulence, such as the second-order structure function or the power spectral density, in terms of proper lengths and volumes and not in terms of coordinate lengths and volumes, as customarily done. By applying the new approach to the turbulent rest-mass density field from simulations of magnetised disc accretion onto a Kerr BH, we inspect in a rigorous way turbulence in regions close to the event horizon, but also in the disc, the wind, and in the jet. We demonstrate that the new approach can capture the typical behavior of an inertial-range cascade and that differences up to $40-80\%$ emerge in the vicinity of the event horizon with respect to the standard flat-spacetime approach. While these differences become smaller at larger distances, our study highlights that special care needs to be paid when analysing turbulence in strongly curved spacetimes.
title Measuring the properties of homogeneous turbulence in curved spacetimes
topic General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Plasma Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.04566