Abstract

Wave Turbulence (WT) refers to a statistical state of many dispersive modes which are weakly nonlinear on average. I will present the fundamental building blocks of the WT theory, assumptions and their justifications, physical examples, solved problems and open questions. I will describe some recent work which goes beyond the traditional WT consideration of the wave spectra, and deals with wave PDFs, non-gaussianity, intermittency. I will outline picture of the WT cycle in which weak (on average) random waves can get transformed into strong coherent structures, which in turn partially dissipate their energy and partially return it to the incoherent waves. My main aim will be to reach out to the stat mech community, in hope to find common points and approaches which could be employed for better understanding of the WT systems.