Statistical mechanics of two-dimensional point vortices: relaxation equations and strong mixing limit

Abstract

We complement the literature on the statistical mechanics of point vortices in two-dimensional hydrodynamics. Using a maximum entropy principle, we determine the multi-species Boltzmann-Poisson equation and establish a form of Virial theorem. Using a maximum entropy production principle (MEPP), we derive a set of relaxation equations towards statistical equilibrium. These relaxation equations can be used as a numerical algorithm to compute the maximum entropy state. We mention the analogies with the Fokker-Planck equations derived by Debye and Hückel for electrolytes. We then consider the limit of strong mixing (or low energy). To leading order, the relationship between the vorticity and the stream function at equilibrium is linear and the maximization of the entropy becomes equivalent to the minimization of the enstrophy. This expansion is similar to the Debye-Hückel approximation for electrolytes, except that the temperature is negative instead of positive so that the effective interaction between like-sign vortices is attractive instead of repulsive. This leads to an organization at large scales presenting geometry-induced phase transitions, instead of Debye shielding. We compare the results obtained with point vortices to those obtained in the context of the statistical mechanics of continuous vorticity fields described by the Miller-Robert-Sommeria (MRS) theory. At linear order, we get the same results but differences appear at the next order. In particular, the MRS theory predicts a transition between sinh and tanh-like ω − ψ relationships depending on the sign of Ku − 3 (where Ku is the Kurtosis) while there is no such transition for point vortices which always show a sinh-like ω − ψ relationship. We derive the form of the relaxation equations in the strong mixing limit and show that the enstrophy plays the role of a Lyapunov functional.