Universality of extreme events in turbulent flows

The universality of small scales, a cornerstone of turbulence, has been nominally confirmed for low-order mean-field statistics, such as the energy spectrum. However, small scales exhibit strong intermittency, exemplified by formation of extreme events which deviate anomalously from a mean-field description. Here, we investigate the universality of small scales by analyzing extreme events of velocity gradients in different turbulent flows, viz., direct numerical simulations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence, inhomogeneous channel flow, and laboratory measurements in a von Kármán mixing tank. We demonstrate that the scaling exponents of velocity gradient moments, as function of Reynolds number (Re), are universal, in agreement with previous studies at lower Re, and further show that even proportionality constants are universal when considering one moment order as a function of another. Additionally, by comparing various unconditional and conditional statistics across different flows, we demonstrate that the structure of the velocity gradient tensor is also universal. Overall, our findings provide compelling evidence that even extreme events are universal, with profound implications for turbulence theory and modeling. Published by the American Physical Society 2025