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Physicists spot quantum tornadoes twirling in a 'supersolid'
New observations of microscopic vortices confirm the existence of a paradoxical phase of matter that may also arise inside neutron stars.
At this point, resisting the urge to rotate, the superfluid suddenly spawns a single quantum vortex — a whorl of atoms surrounding a column of nothingness that extends to the bottom of the bucket. Zubieta, an astronomy grad student at the National University of La Plata, had been tracking the impressively stable rotation of the Vela pulsar, the magnetized remnant of a massive star that exploded roughly 11,000 years ago. But astronomers suspect that, in a layer below the star’s solid outer crust, pressurized neutrons form clumps that take on unusual shapes, which they often refer to as “nuclear pasta.” The leading models feature phases resembling gnocchi, spaghetti and lasagna.
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