Attractor-Basin-Limited Fidelity in Reproducible Multistate Vortex Memory
Multilevel non-volatile memory technologies face recurring trade-offs among information density, endurance, retention, and switching energy. We investigate an alternative state variable based on the discrete vortex configuration of self-organized vortices in a boundary-driven electron fluid. A dissipative point-vortex model derived from magnetohydrodynamic dynamics yields six reproducible vortex codewords, corresponding to 2.585 bits per cell, whose write fidelity, noise sensitivity, 100-cycle endurance, and effective information capacity are quantified. The ordering of their finite-amplitude basin radii $r_{50}$ differs from that predicted by both fixed-circulation and fully coupled linear-stability spectra. A nonlinear saddle-point construction based on the reduced dynamics likewise does not recover the measured basin ordering. The discrepancy is associated with escape pathways involving coupled position--circulation dynamics that are absent from the fixed-circulation description. These results show that local stability alone does not determine the finite perturbation tolerance of the vortex states considered here. The proposed memory requires active hold power, and passive retention remains to be established experimentally.