Imaging Orbital Vortex Lines in Three-Dimensional Momentum Space

We report the experimental discovery of orbital vortex lines in the three-dimensional (3D) band structure of a topological semimetal. Combining linear and circular dichroism in soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission (SX-ARPES) with first-principles theory, we image the winding of atomic orbital angular momentum, thereby revealing - and determining the location of - lines of vorticity in full 3D momentum space. We determine the core of the orbital angular momentum vortex to host an almost movable, twofold, spin-degenerate Weyl nodal line, a topological feature predicted to occur in certain nonsymmorphic crystals. These results establish bimodal dichroism in SX-ARPES as a robust approach to trace 3D orbital textures. Our findings constitute the first imaging of nontrivial quantum-phase winding at line nodes and may pave the way to new orbitronic phenomena in quantum materials.