International Network for Nonlinear Studies (INNS)

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This award provides partial support for an extended workshop and a conference on turbulence in optics and plasmas under the US-USSR Cooperative Science Program. These activities are envisioned as the step in a program of sustained interaction between scientists in the US and the USSR in the general area of nonlinear studies. These efforts will involve both theoretical and experimental scientists with an emphasis on inclusion of new researchers. The problem of turbulence is one of the most challenging in the interface between physics and mathematics. It is a fundamental problem not only for hydrodynamics but for plasma physics, astrophysics and nonlinear optics. It is now realized that many different types of turbulence have the same characteristic feature - the nucleation, formation and dissipation of special singular coherent structures. These are related to singularities of the solutions of the governing partial differential equations and are responsible for two key processes in turbulence - the production of small-scale motion and the dissipation of energy. These areas will be explored in an extended workshop and a conference under the auspices of the US-USSR Cooperative Science Program.