Remarkable statistical behavior for truncated Burgers–Hopf dynamics

A simplified one-dimensional model system is introduced and studied here that exhibits intrinsic chaos with many degrees of freedom as well as increased predictability and slower decay of correlations for the large-scale features of the system. These are important features in common with vastly more complex problems involving climate modeling or molecular biological systems. This model is a suitable approximation of the Burgers–Hopf equation involving Galerkin projection on Fourier modes. The model has a detailed mathematical structure that leads to a well-defined equilibrium statistical theory as well as a simple scaling theory for correlations. The numerical evidence presented here strongly supports the behavior predicted from these statistical theories. Unlike the celebrated dissipative and dispersive approximations of the Burgers–Hopf equation, which exhibit exactly solvable and/or completely integrable behavior, these model approximations have strong intrinsic chaos with ergodic behavior.