Velocity field distributions due to ideal line vortices - art. no. 056311

We evaluate numerically the velocity field distributions produced by a boun ded, two-dimensional fluid model consisting of a collection of parallel ide al line vortices. We sample at many spatial points inside a rigid circular boundary. We focus on ''nearest-neighbor'' contributions that result from v ortices that fall (randomly) very close to the spatial points where the vel ocity is being sampled. We confirm that these events lead to a non-Gaussian high-velocity "tail" on an otherwise Gaussian distribution function for th e Eulerian velocity held. We also investigate the behavior of distributions that do not have equilibrium mean-field probability distributions that are uniform inside the circle, but instead correspond to both higher and lower mean-field energies than those associated with the uniform vorticity distr ibution. We find substantial differences between these and the uniform case .