TURBULENT BURSTING AND SPATIOTEMPORAL INTERMITTENCY IN THE COUNTERROTATING TAYLOR-COUETTE SYSTEM

Turbulent bursting that is intermittent in time and space occurs in th e Taylor-Couette system when the cylinders rotate in opposite directio ns. We show, through an analysis of the turbulent fraction and the siz e distributions of turbulent and laminar domains, that the Taylor-Coue tte system behaves differently than previously explored systems exhibi ting spatiotemporal intermittency. Finally, we consider the analogy li nking spatiotemporal intermittency with second order phase transitions .