Phase space structure and anomalous diffusion in a rotational fluid experiment.
The transport of passive scalars is considered in a model of rotating annulus experiments. The system has a chain of vortices and a jet, separated by a stochastic layer. For special values of the control parameters, the boundary of the stochastic layer can contain self-similar structures of islands with regular trajectories. Two such values are identified, with the structure being on the jet boundary and on the vortex boundary, respectively. The transport properties for both cases were studied by high-precision direct numerical integration of the equations of motion. The presence of such structures is found to significantly affect the statistical properties of the trajectories and the transport exponent. The results of the computations are compared with various theoretical models of anomalous diffusion. The particle behavior was found to depend significantly on the time scale, with different theories being applicable on different time intervals. Some regimes do not match any of the existing theories. (c) 2000 American Institute of Physics.