  We observe that intergranular jets, originating in the intergranular space
surrounding individual granules, tend to be associated with granular
fragmentation, in particular, with the formation and evolution of a bright
granular lane (BGL) within individual granules. The BGLs have recently been
identified as vortex tubes by Steiner et al. We further discover the
development of a well-defined bright grain located between the BGL and the dark
intergranular lane to which it is connected. Signatures of a BGL may reach the
lower chromosphere and can be detected in off-band \ha images. Simulations also
indicate that vortex tubes are frequently associated with small-scale magnetic
fields. We speculate that the intergranular jets detected in the NST data may
result from the interaction between the turbulent small-scale fields associated
with the vortex tube and the larger-scale fields existing in the intergranular
lanes. The intergranular jets are much smaller and weaker than all previously
known jet-like events. At the same time, they appear much more numerous than
the larger events, leading us to the speculation that the total energy release
and mass transport by these tiny events may not be negligible in the energy and
mass-flux balance near the temperature minimum atop the photosphere. The study
is based on the photospheric TiO broadband (1.0 nm) filter data acquired with
the 1.6 m New Solar Telescope (NST) operating at the Big Bear Solar
Observatory. The data set also includes NST off-band \ha images collected
through a Zeiss Lyot filter with a passband of 0.025 nm.
