Adrian van Kan


avankan at berkeley.edu
Department of Physics
University of California at Berkeley
USA

GS RG ORCID

About Me

I'm a DFG Walter Benjamin Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, passionate about fluid mechanics, turbulence, statistical mechanics and nonlinear/stochastic dynamics more broadly. My primary experience is in using numerical simulations, modelling and theory of geophysical (oceanic and atmospheric) turbulence to understand self-organisation and the formation of coherent structures (e.g. hurricane-like large-scale vortices) in these flows.

I'm currently working in the group of Professor Edgar Knobloch (UC Berkeley), and was co-supervised by Keith Julien (CU Boulder) until his untimely passing. I am studying instability-driven turbulence and rotating convection. During my PhD at Ecole normale supérieure (ENS), working with Alexandros Alexakis and Marc Brachet I explored nonequilibrium phase transitions in idealized geophysical turbulence.

Projects

Coming soon...

Publications

Currently Submitted Papers

  1. A.van Kan
    ``Invited Mini-review: Phase Transitions in Anisotropic Turbulence"
    (submitted to Chaos: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Nonlinear Science) [ArXiv].
  2. A.van Kan, K. Julien, B. Miquel, E. Knobloch
    ``Bridging the Rossby number gap in rapidly rotating thermal convection"
    (submitted to J. Fluid Mech.) [ArXiv].
  3. K. Julien, A.van Kan, B. Miquel, E. Knobloch, G. Vasil
    ``Rescaled Equations of Fluid Motion for Well-Conditioned Direct Numerical Simulations of Rapidly Rotating Convection "
    (submitted to J. Comp. Phys.) [ArXiv].

Published Papers

    2024

  1. L. Xu, A.van Kan, C. Liu, E. Knobloch
    ``Fluctuation-induced transitions in anisotropic two-dimensional turbulence"
    Phys. Rev. Fluids, 9, 064605 (2024), Editor's Suggestion [ArXiv], [online].
  2. A.van Kan, B. Favier, K. Julien, E. Knobloch
    ``From a vortex gas to a vortex crystal in instability-driven two-dimensional turbulence"
    J. Fluid Mech., 984, A41 (2024) [ArXiv], [online].
  3. A. Alexakis, R. Marino, P. D. Mininni, A. van Kan , R. Foldes, F. Feraco
    ``Large-scale self-organisation in dry turbulent atmospheres"
    Science, 383, 6686, pp. 1005-1009 (2024) [online].

    4. 2023

  4. M. Raja, A. van Kan, B. Foster, E. Knobloch
    ``Collisions of localized patterns in a nonvariational Swift-Hohenberg equation"
    Phys. Rev. E 107, 064214 (2023) [ArXiv], [online].
  5. A. van Kan, F. Pétrélis
    1/f noise and anomalous scaling in Lévy noise-driven on–off intermittency.
    J. Stat. Mech. 2023(1), 013204 [ArXiv], [online]

    6. 2022

  6. A. van Kan, B. Favier, K. Julien, E. Knobloch
    ``Spontaneous suppression of inverse energy cascade in instability-driven 2D turbulence"
    (2022), J. Fluid Mech., 952, p.R4. [ArXiv], [online]
  7. X. M. de Wit, A.van Kan, A. Alexakis
    ``Bistability of the large-scale dynamics in quasi-two-dimensional turbulence"
    J. Fluid Mech. 939, R2 (2022) [ArXiv], [online],
  8. A.van Kan, A. Alexakis, M. E. Brachet
    ``Geometric microcanonical theory of two-dimensional Truncated Euler flows''
    Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.380. 20210049 (2022) [ArXiv], [online], [pdf].

    9. 2021

  9. A.van Kan, A. Alexakis
    ``Energy cascades in rapidly rotating and stratified turbulence within elongated domains''
    J. Fluid Mech. 933, A11 (2021) [ArXiv], [online],
  10. A.van Kan, A. Alexakis, M. E. Brachet
    ``Lévy On-Off Intermittency''
    Phys. Rev. E 103, 052115 (2021) [ArXiv], [online],
  11. A.van Kan, A. Alexakis, M. E. Brachet
    ``Intermittency of three-dimensional perturbations in a point-vortex model''
    Phys. Rev. E 103, 053102 (2021) [ArXiv], [online],

    12. 2020

  12. A.van Kan, A. Alexakis
    ``Critical transition in fast-rotating turbulence within highly elongated domains"
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics 899, A33 (2020) [ArXiv], [online],
  13. B. Poujol, A.van Kan, A. Alexakis
    ``Role of the forcing dimensionality in thin-layer turbulent energy cascades"
    Phys. Rev. Fluids 5, 064610 (2020) [ArXiv], [online],

    14. 2019

  14. A.van Kan, T. Nemoto, A. Alexakis,
    ``Rare transitions to thin-layer turbulent condensates"
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics 878, 356-369 (2019) [ArXiv], [online],
  15. A.van Kan, A. Alexakis
    ``Condensates in thin-layer turbulence"
    Journal of Fluid Mechanics 864, 490-518 (2019) [ArXiv], [online],

    16. 2016

  16. A.van Kan, J. Jegminat, J. Donges, J. Kurths
    ``Constrained Basin stability for studying transient phenomena in dynamical systems"
    Physical Review E 93.4 (2016): 042205. [ArXiv], [online],

    17. 2015

  17. S. Wang, R. Toumi, A.Czaja, A.van Kan
    ``An analytic model of tropical cyclone wind profiles"
    Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society 141.693 (2015) [online],

Curriculum Vitae

Employment

  • 2021-present: Postdoctoral Researcher @ Physics Department, UC Berkeley. Working under the supervision of Professor Edgar Knobloch, co-supervision by Professor Keith Julien (CU Boulder)

Education

  • Master of Science, Physics, Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Heidelberg.
    Thesis Supervisor: Alexandros Alexakis (ENS Paris)
  • Master of Advanced Studies, Mathematics, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge
    Essay supervisor: Peter Hitchcock
  • Bachelor of Science, Fakultät für Physik und Astronomie, Universität Heidelberg.
    Including Erasmus exchange at Imperial College London
    Third year project supervisor: Dr. Arnaud Czaja (ICL)
    Thesis supervisor: Prof. Sandra Klevansky (Heidelberg)

    Here you can download a detailed PDF version of my CV.

Collaborators

Below you find a list of my past and present collaborators, in reverse chronological order, grouped by the institution I was at when the collaboration started (UC Berkeley, ENS Paris, Universität Heidelberg, Imperial College London).

Prof. Edgar Knobloch (University of California, Berkeley)
Prof. Keith Julien (University of Colorado, Boulder)
Dr. Benjamin Favier (CNRS, IRPHE - Aix-Marseille University)
Dr. Alexandros Alexakis (CNRS, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris)
Dr. Marc Brachet (CNRS, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris)
Dr. François Pétrélis (CNRS, Ecole normale supérieure, Paris)
Dr. Takahiro Nemoto (Kyoto University)
Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Jürgen Kurths (PIK, Potsdam)
Dr. Jonathan Donges (PIK, Potsdam)
Dr. Arnaud Czaja (Imperial College, London)
Prof. Ralf Toumi (Imperial College, London)