Elastic turbulence in space

Abstract

Using an analogy between elastic and magnetic effects, Lin et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 1000, 2024, R3) use viscoelastic Taylor-Couette flow (TCF) to examine the origin of turbulent mixing in accretion disks. Through direct numerical simulations, the authors find that, unlike the Newtonian case with a similar configuration, turbulence is sustained even at the lowest Reynolds numbers examined and that turbulent mixing is provided through elastic and non-hydrodynamic contributions. By comparing the torque scaling laws obtained with those in magnetized TCF, the authors are able to further support the elastic-magnetic analogy. These findings open new avenues for understanding angular momentum transport and instability mechanisms in both laboratory and astrophysical contexts.