Preferential Sampling of Elastic Chains in Turbulent Flows.

A string of tracers interacting elastically in a turbulent flow is shown to have a dramatically different behavior when compared to the noninteracting case. In particular, such an elastic chain shows strong preferential sampling of the turbulent flow unlike the usual tracer limit: An elastic chain is trapped in the vortical regions. The degree of preferential sampling and its dependence on the elasticity of the chain is quantified via the Okubo-Weiss parameter. The effect of modifying the deformability of the chain via the number of links that form it is also examined.