Autocatalytic reaction—Diffusion model for intermittency in turbulence

We present a model of a diffusing chemical species undergoing stochastic autocatalytic (birth-death) reactions. This system develops intermittent population distributions with strongly non-Gaussian statistics. The structure of such distributions is studied by means of numerical simulations, applying the cluster technique used to analyze fully developed hydrodynamical turbulence. We find that the population distributions of this simple birth-death model is strikingly similar to the vorticity distribution obtained in computer calculations on developed turbulence.