Two-dimensional turbulence on the ellipsoid

Two-dimensional turbulence transfers its energy towards the lowest mode in the domain, but domain geometry exerts a powerful control. On the sphere, with its three axes of rotational symmetry, angular momentum conservation prevents energy from entering the three lowest modes – those corresponding to the spherical harmonics $Y_1^0$ and $Y_1^{\pm 1}$ – because the amplitudes of these three modes are proportional to the three conserved components of the angular momentum vector. Non-spherical ellipsoids partly or completely break the rotational symmetry corresponding to angular momentum conservation. The flow on spheroids, which have only one axis of rotational symmetry, conserves only a single component of angular momentum. If the axis of symmetry is taken to be the $z$ -axis, then only the $z$ -component of angular momentum is conserved. Energy can flow into the other two lowest modes. The general triaxial ellipsoid breaks all rotational symmetries, thus angular momentum is not conserved, and energy can flow into any mode. We describe numerical experiments that confirm these predictions.