Dynamical and statistical properties of the vortex and passive particle advection in chaotic flows generated by 4- and 16-point vortices are investigated. General transport properties of these flows are found to be anomalous and exhibit a superdiffusive behavior with typical second moment exponent $\mu \sim \mathrm{1.75.}$ The origin of this anomaly is traced to the presence of coherent structures within the flow, the vortex cores, and the region far from where vortices are located. In the vicinity of these regions stickiness is observed and the motion of tracers is quasiballistic. The chaotic nature of the underlying flow dictates the choice for thorough analysis of transport properties. Passive tracer motion is analyzed by measuring the mutual relative evolution of two nearby tracers. Some tracers travel in each other’s vicinity for relatively long times. This is related to a hidden order for the tracers, which we call jets. Jets are localized and found in sticky regions. Their structure is analyzed and found to be formed of a nested set of jets within jets. The analysis of the jet trapping time statistics shows a quantitative agreement with the observed transport exponent.

• Received 20 September 2001

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.65.046216