Does Kutta lift exist on a vortex ring in a uniform cross flow?

Past works [Y. K. Chang and A. D. Vakili, Phys. Fluids 7, 1583 (1995); R. Sau and K. Mahesh, AIAA Paper No. 2007-1316] show that a vortex ring ejected normal to a cross flow tilts and deforms as it propagates downstream, and they attribute this phenomenon to the Kutta lift or Magnus effect. Here, we show through a controlled experiment that there is no physical evidence of the existence of a Kutta lift when a fully developed vortex ring is exposed to a uniform cross flow. The observed phenomenon could be attributed to the modification of vorticity distribution of the vortex core due to the combined effect of the cross flow itself and the entrainment of boundary layer material during the formation of vortex ring.