Geometric theory of perturbation dynamics around non-equilibrium fluid flows

The present work investigates the evolution of linear perturbations of time-dependent ideal fluid flows with advected quantities, expressed in terms of the second order variations of the action corresponding to a Lagrangian defined on a semidirect product space. This approach is related to Jacobi fields along geodesics and several examples are given explicitly to elucidate our approach. Numerical simulations of the perturbation dynamics are also presented.