Flatland physics probes mysteries of superfluidity

If physicists lived in Flatland - the fictional two-dimensional world invented by Edwin Abbott in his 1884 novel - some of their quantum physics experiments would turn out differently (not just thinner) than those in our world. The distinction has taken another step from speculative fiction to real-world puzzle with a paper from the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) reporting on a Flatland arrangement of ultracold gas atoms. The new results, which don't quite jibe with earlier Flatland experiments in Paris, might help clarify a strange property: 'superfluidity'...

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