A Universe of Vortices

Existing physics, four shifts, one superfluid that underlies everything

Published

August 16, 2026

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

For the math: The Vacuum’s Superfluid Lattice, or the video.

For the numbers: the source code that reproduces the predictions.

Introduction

From the established idea that the universe’s vacuum has properties of a superfluid, it takes only four shifts to fix the lattice size, ≈100 μm, the size of the superfluid cells that fill all space, derived from the measured dark-matter density with no free parameter. That same length then lands on the Higgs vacuum expectation value to 0.06\%, the Koide lepton relation to 9 ppm, and the MOND acceleration scale to \sim3\%.

Picture the vortices that must have formed during the Big Bang with these assumptions:

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

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
  • ~100 μm coherence envelope — the Compton wavelength of a very light particle
  • Condensation number \approx8.4\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 the story: Our Normal Universe, the video, or the slide show.

For the math: The Vacuum’s Superfluid Lattice, or the video.

For the numbers: the source code that reproduces the predictions.

Beyond that, there’s a broader exploration mostly written by Claude, reviewed and edited by me, applying the backbone to boundaries at every scale. Each chapter shows where the substrate fits at a high-level, predictions and conjectures trying to paint an honest picture.