Poles, Shocks and Tygers: The Time-reversible Burgers equation

Abstract

We construct a formally time-reversible, one-dimensional forced Burgers equation by imposing a global constraint of energy conservation, wherein the constant viscosity is modified to a fluctuating state-dependent dissipation coefficient. The system exhibits dynamical properties which bear strong similarities with those observed for the Burgers equation and can be understood using the dynamics of the poles, shocks, and truncation effects, such as tygers. A complex interplay of these give rise to interesting statistical regimes ranging from hydrodynamic behavior to a completely thermalized warm phase. The end of the hydrodynamic regime is associated with the appearance of a shock in the solution and a continuous transition leading to a truncation-dependent state. Beyond this, the truncation effects such as tygers and the appearance of secondary discontinuity at the resonance point in the solution strongly influence the statistical properties. These disappear at the second transition, at which the global quantities exhibit a jump and attain values that are consistent with the establishment of a quasiequilibrium state characterized by energy equipartition among the Fourier modes. Our comparative analysis shows that the macroscopic statistical properties of the formally time-reversible system and the Burgers equation are equivalent in all the regimes, irrespective of the truncation effects, and this equivalence is not just limited to the hydrodynamic regime, thereby further strengthening the Gallavotti's equivalence conjecture. The properties of the system are further examined by inspecting the complex space singularities in the velocity field of the Burgers equation. Furthermore, an effective theory is proposed to describe the discontinuous transition.