Wave turbulence

Wave turbulence is the statistical mechanics of random waves with a broadband spectrum interacting via non-linearity. To understand its difference from non-random well-tuned coherent waves, one could compare the sound of thunder to a piece of classical music. Wave turbulence is surprisingly common and important in a great variety of physical settings, starting with the most familiar ocean waves to waves at quantum scales or to much longer waves in astrophysics. We will provide a basic overview of the wave turbulence ideas, approaches and main results emphasising the physics of the phenomena and using qualitative descriptions avoiding, whenever possible, involved mathematical derivations. In particular, dimensional analysis will be used for obtaining the key scaling solutions in wave turbulence – Kolmogorov–Zakharov (KZ) spectra.