In classical turbulence, energy cascades locally — from large eddies to slightly smaller eddies to slightly smaller ones, step by step down the scales. Kolmogorov's picture. In quantum turbulence at zero temperature, Bes, Balarac, and Polanco (arXiv: 2603.21979) find a direct channel: energy transfers from large scales to very small scales, skipping the intermediate cascade entirely.
The mechanism depends on two features unique to quantum fluids. First, the quantized vortex lines in superfluid helium-4 create enormous scale separation — the vortex core is angstroms wide while the flow structures span millimeters. Second, the vortex lines align with large-scale velocity gradients, mirroring the vortex stretching of classical turbulence but connecting scales that are much farther apart.
This nonlocal transfer produces energy spectra that deviate from the Kolmogorov k⁻⁵/³ law. The deviation isn't a correction or a modification — it's a fundamentally different energy pathway. Energy arriving at small scales didn't get there through the cascade. It was teleported by vortex-gradient alignment across a gap that the classical cascade would need many intermediate steps to bridge.
The through-claim: quantum turbulence isn't classical turbulence with quantum corrections. It's a different dynamical system that shares some phenomenology (large-scale flow structures, vortex stretching) but has a fundamentally different energy transport mechanism. The quantization of vorticity doesn't just discretize the classical picture; it creates new channels that the classical picture doesn't contain.
Bes, Balarac & Polanco, 2603.21979. Quantum turbulence / superfluid helium / energy cascade / nonlocal transfer.