[AO discussion] new GFD discussion list.

[Michael McIntyre]

Rob, re

> Why don't KAM barriers to transport qualify as a fully nonlinear
> theory that explains the inhibition to mixing at small spatial
> scales?"

A quick answer is that they ignore the PV field -- so, to accept such 
an explanation, you have to argue that PV is dynamically neglible, hence 
that Rossby waves and vortex interactions, e.g. merging, are unimportant.

(I take it you mean the KAM barriers that arise in chaotic-advection
theories in which particular kinds of velocity fields are prescribed.
Unlike the real velocity fields, such a velocity field cannot respond
to PV rearrangement.)

BTW the final version, we hope improved, version of our paper in press is
now up on the Kyoto website, also available via a link in the Chapman
paragraph on my home page http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/people/mem/

Best wishes,
Michael McIntyre

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Professor M. E. McIntyre MAE FRS,
Centre for Atmospheric Science at the
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics,
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http://www.atm.damtp.cam.ac.uk/people/mem/lucidity-principles-in-brief/

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