vortices

The findings demonstrate that even a surface feature only one atom high can have a powerful influence on the movement of quantum vortices.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

This behavior, known as one-dimensional pinning-free vortex flow, means the vortices can travel along a defined path without encountering the usual obstacles that restrict their movement.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Under certain conditions, these vortices moved more than 1,000 times more easily along the steps than across them.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

Using scanning tunneling microscopy, a technique capable of imaging surfaces at the atomic level, the researchers confirmed that the steps ran parallel to one another and directly observed vortices positioned along them.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026

All of this can be explained very well in the atomic model of the world, but only with much greater difficulty using Cartesian vortices.

From "The Scientists" by John Gribbin