Turbulent skies have often inspired artists, particularly in the iconic swirls of Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night. For an extended period, debate has raged over whether the flow pattern in this masterpiece adheres to Kolmogorov's theory of turbulence. In contrast to previous studies that examined only part of this painting, all and only the whirls/eddies in the painting are taken into account in this work, following the Richardson–Kolmogorov's cascade picture of turbulence. Consequently, the luminance's Fourier power spectrum spontaneously exhibits a characteristic Kolmogorov-like power-law. This result suggests that van Gogh had a very careful observation of real flows, so that not only the sizes of whirls/eddies in The Starry Night but also their relative distances and intensity follow the physical law that governs turbulent flows. Moreover, a “–1”-like power-law persists in the spectrum below the scales of the smallest whirls, hinting at Batchelor-type scalar turbulence with a high Schmidt number. Our study, thus, unveils the hidden turbulence captured within The Starry Night.
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September 2024
Research Article|
September 17 2024
Hidden turbulence in van Gogh's The Starry Night
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Yinxiang Ma (马寅翔)
;
Yinxiang Ma (马寅翔)
(Formal analysis, Methodology)
1
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science & College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University
, Xiamen, China
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Wanting Cheng (程婉婷)
;
Wanting Cheng (程婉婷)
(Formal analysis, Investigation)
2
Center for Complex Flows and Soft Matter Research and Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology
, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
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Shidi Huang (黄仕迪)
;
Shidi Huang (黄仕迪)
(Investigation, Writing – review & editing)
2
Center for Complex Flows and Soft Matter Research and Department of Mechanics and Aerospace Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology
, Shenzhen, Guangdong, China
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François G. Schmitt
;
François G. Schmitt
(Investigation, Writing – review & editing)
3
CNRS, Univ. Lille, Univ. Littoral Cote d'Opale, UMR 8187, LOG, Laboratoire d'Océanologie et de Géosciences
, F 62930 Wimereux, France
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Xin Lin (林昕)
;
Xin Lin (林昕)
(Investigation, Writing – review & editing)
1
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science & College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University
, Xiamen, China
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Yongxiang Huang (黄永祥)
Yongxiang Huang (黄永祥)
a)
(Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Writing – original draft)
1
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science & College of Ocean and Earth Sciences, Xiamen University
, Xiamen, China
4
Fujian Engineering Research Center for Ocean Remote Sensing Big Data, Xiamen University
, Xiamen, China
5
Center for Marine Meteorology and Climate Change, Xiamen University
, Xiamen, China
a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: yongxianghuang@gmail.com and yongxianghuang@xmu.edu.cn
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a)Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: yongxianghuang@gmail.com and yongxianghuang@xmu.edu.cn
Physics of Fluids 36, 095140 (2024)
Article history
Received:
April 12 2024
Accepted:
July 31 2024
Connected Content
A correction has been published:
Publisher's Note: “Hidden turbulence in van Gogh's The Starry Night [Phys. Fluids 36, 095140 (2024)]
Citation
Yinxiang Ma, Wanting Cheng, Shidi Huang, François G. Schmitt, Xin Lin, Yongxiang Huang; Hidden turbulence in van Gogh's The Starry Night. Physics of Fluids 1 September 2024; 36 (9): 095140. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0213627
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