Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 13, 2026

Preparation of Free-Surface Hyperbolic Water Vortices
Published on: July 28, 2023
Golden spirals as phyllotactic arrangements of optical patterns
1INLN, Université de Nice-Sophia Antipolis, CNRS, 1361 route des Lucioles 06560 Valbonne, France.
Abstract:
A nonlinear optical medium with nonlocal feedback is shown to have all the necessary ingredients to simulate a growthlike process that generates golden spirals and phyllotactic patterns. Elementary droplets of light are generated by the optical nonlinearity whereas the combination of rotation and translation in the feedback loop geometrically distributes them on spiraling patterns. The symmetry of the geometrical arrangements is described with the help of a simple replication algorithm.
Related Concept Videos
Stereoisomerism
Isomers are different chemical species that have the same chemical formula.
Transition metal complexes often exist as geometric isomers, in which the same atoms are connected through the same types of bonds but with differences in their orientation in space. Coordination complexes with two different ligands in the cis and trans positions from a ligand of interest form isomers. For example, the octahedral [Co(NH3)4Cl2]+ ion has two isomers (Figure 1) In the cis...
Gauss's Law: Planar Symmetry
The Seven Crystal Systems: Overview
Fischer Projections
Properties of Enantiomers and Optical Activity
Crystallographic Point Groups

