A Universe of Vortices

Existing physics, four shifts, one superfluid that underlies everything

Author
Affiliation

Jeffrey Vroom

Independent

Published

August 27, 2026

Introduction

What we know for sure is that there was a Big Bang. Assume a tiny, tiny substrate underneath that event. It would form vortices of particles too small to be seen as individuals. They would collide elastically, frictionlessly forever, just like the vortex lines of a superfluid condensate but much faster, not disrupted by heat, hiding energy, permanent vortex storms — particles — holding the kinetic energy of rotation at the speed of light, E = mc^2. Mass then must be leaking vortex energy in this substrate.

In superfluids, shear zones form counter-rotating layers, seams that wrap the leaks. A tighter seam forms around a heavier leak, as modeled by both the Compton wavelength and the Volovik quasiparticle speed in a superfluid condensate. And HVBK mutual friction — the textbook hydrodynamics of superfluid helium — finds the \alpha_{mf} that turns flywheel physics into Einstein’s famous equation, shows the quantum potential as the reaction force of the shear zones in the orbital boundary, and gravity as the ebbing leak and the energetic fall in between.

The Big Bang becomes Our Big Bubble, one of many, in a super-energetic substrate that boils. This ties the atom to cosmology and shows that cellular dynamics is not pure diffusion. Boundary layers are organized into energetic topologies with a ratio, and a texture.

All it takes are these four assumptions:

  1. Particles are vortices in the substrate rotating near the speed of light
  2. A new lightweight particle — dc1 — that fills the vacuum and the spaces between atoms
  3. The quantum potential is the reaction force of the electron orbital’s counter-rotating shear layers
  4. The photon is a modon: a self-propelled pair of counter-rotating vortices like those in Gulf Stream rings

These equations find an atom and a universe that make sense from that one coefficient, \alpha_{mf}, that models the energy of the shear zones:

And the scorecard those equations produce — predicted against observed, across every domain:

For the longer narrative intro: Our Normal Universe, the video, or the slide show.

For the math, the paper: The Vacuum’s Superfluid Lattice, also on zenodo, or the video.

All predictions reproduced in python, so you can check the numbers yourself.

The broader investigation includes exploratory content I created with Claude, applying the substrate model to boundary problems across the board in science. I’ve curated it for correctness and edited it for clarity but I am not an expert in any of these areas. My goal is to help you see the substrate the way I found it, following the thread of boundary energy from the eyes of a generalist who has been reading science papers across domains for forty years. A clearer understanding of the subtle boundary energy offers a new interpretation of existing science.

I am grateful for any help you can offer in correcting mistakes, or expanding the lens.

Quick Intro

Here’s how light works in a nutshell. Two counter-rotating shear layers in the electron’s wake break off to form a pair of counter-rotating vortices that travel at their rotational speed, matching the medium’s rotational speed, until they are caught by two layers of an atom’s orbital that absorbs them.

The substrate properties that allow a modon lead to a geometric prediction supported from cosmology and particle physics: a superfluid lattice whose envelope is the size of a human cell. The size is not a coincidence. The substrate’s energy, spacing, and topology shape energetic boundaries at every scale, including the one life builds on.

Clear equations including:

  • Speed of light from the vortex rotation speed
  • Mass as leaking vortex rotational energy, fighting through shear layers, with kinetic energy that shows why E = mc^2
  • Quantum potential as the reaction force of a superfluid
  • Gravity as an ebbing leak through shear boundaries, with the stream accelerating in between
  • MOND scale as the speed above which the substrate can no longer carry photons seamlessly — the lattice shreds, and its gravitational behavior changes into what we call dark matter

The standard model equations with improved understanding:

The shape of the vacuum’s lattice:

  • The vacuum’s particle: dc1 (“dark carbon” — and dark matter, once it moves past the substrate’s speed limit)
  • Anti-phase Cooper pairs, ~2 meV rest mass, oscillating against each other, nesting their superfluid energy into a balanced lattice with a texture
  • ~97 μm coherence envelope — the Compton wavelength of a very light particle
  • Condensation number \approx8.35\times10^8: the number of dc1 cells inside one envelope, against \approx10^6 atoms for its heavier, slower mirror, \text{He-3}

The texture forms a ladder:

  • Sheet spacing 16 μm, with an opposing energetic layer every 8 μm
  • Lock ratio \sqrt2 — bind, nest, 120^\circ angles (in the gap) or hinge (on the tooth)
  • Anti-lock ratio \varphi — avoid, diffuse, the 137.5^\circ golden angle
  • Chemistry mixes the two to reach the angles in between — a scale-invariant potential

Left: isotropic vortex glass in a YBCO superconductor, individual flux quanta poking through — a visual analog to the texture of the dc1 lattice, vortex shear zones near the speed of light. Center: the same field resolved into closely-spaced anti-phase pairs and groups, one circled. Right (modeled): the disordered-hyperuniform “blue-noise” texture the dc1 substrate lattice holds from the backbone equations. Measured images by Frederick S. Wells, Alexey V. Pan, X. Renshaw Wang, Sergey A. Fedoseev & Hans Hilgenkamp - https://www.nature.com/articles/srep08677, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57135410

Experiments:

More predictions:

Two nested topologies of the vacuum’s energy:

  • Feedback topology - unbalanced - electrons, protons, quarks, planets, stars, galaxies
  • Modon topology - balanced - photons, layers of balanced energy inside things

Which leads to a clearer picture of:

For more information, read the longer intro: Our Normal Universe or the video, or the slide show.

Read the paper: The Vacuum’s Superfluid Lattice, or the math oriented video.