Field Geometry Incompletely Reconstructs Realized Vortical Adjacency in Turbulent Dissipation Forecasting

We test whether the topological organization of the vorticity field carries predictive information about future local dissipation in turbulence, beyond low-order field-geometry features. Using a coarse-grained Eulerian-cell representation of forced isotropic turbulence (Johns Hopkins Turbulence Database, Reₗambda about 433), we construct a vortex skeleton graph and adapt the relational-advantage framework developed for granular force-network ensembles (FNE-I). Relational (graph) features add predictive value for future dissipation at every horizon tested, growing with prediction horizon, and surviving five robustness checks including a strengthened geometric baseline that explicitly includes vorticity and velocity-gradient-tensor invariants. The Contact Realization Underdetermination index CRUₜurb is about 0. 58, placing turbulence between glassy dynamics (CRU about 0) and granular force networks (CRU 0. 94 to 0. 99), interpreted as a hypothesis as an epistemic rather than ontic form of underdetermination. This is a companion study to FNE-I (granular force-network ensembles).