Stochastic Lorenz dynamics and wind reversals in Rayleigh-Bénard Convection

[2602.16068] Stochastic Lorenz dynamics and wind reversals in Rayleigh-Bénard Convection Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Physics > Fluid Dynamics arXiv:2602.16068 (physics) [Submitted on 17 Feb 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 27 Aug 2026 (this version, v3)] Title: Stochastic Lorenz dynamics and wind reversals in Rayleigh-Bénard Convection Authors: Yanni Bills , J. S. Wettlaufer View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: The Lorenz equations [1] are a severe Galerkin-truncation of the Oberbeck-Boussinesq (OB) equations describing Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC). Here we examine the mathematical connections between the chaotic lobe-switching behavior of a stochastic form of the Lorenz equations, that model the interaction between the thermal boundary layers and the core circulation, and the mean wind reversals in the experiments of Sreenivasan et al. [2]. Long-time numerical simulations of these stochastic equations, not easily accessible with the OB equations, yield a probability distribution for lobe inter-switch timings that exhibits non-Gaussian, multifractal behavior. In the Gaussian frequency range the simulations mirror the laboratory measurements and the classical Hurst exponent and quadratic variation show Brownian second-moment statistics. Further scrutiny reveals a non-linear cumulant generating function, or moment-exponent function, and thus multifractality. A simple generalized two-scale Cantor-cascade analysis reproduces these properties, showing that multiplicative intermittency, characteristic of turbulence, strongly influences the statistics. This demonstrates that this stochastic Lorenz system is a faithful, low-dimensional surrogate for mean-wind reversals in RBC. Comments: 11 pages, 16 figures Subjects: Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) ; Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD) Cite as: arXiv:2602.16068 [physics.flu-dyn] (or arXiv:2602.16068v3 [physics.flu-dyn] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2602.16068 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: John Wettlaufer S [ view email ] [v1] Tue, 17 Feb 2026 22:49:26 UTC (2,231 KB) [v2] Wed, 27 May 2026 22:19:26 UTC (2,233 KB) [v3] Thu, 27 Aug 2026 21:37:58 UTC (2,230 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Current browse context: physics.flu-dyn < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-02 Change to browse by: nlin nlin.CD physics References & Citations SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab)

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