The pilot-wave dynamics of walking droplets
Name
Bush_The pilot-wave.pdf
Size
1.47 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
4c3c8cd8589a522c6a43336c29e51d29
Author(s)
Harris, Daniel Martin
Bush, John W. M.
Date Issued
September 2013
Journal
Physics of Fluids
Publisher
American Institute of Physics (AIP)
Citation
Harris, Daniel M., and John W. M. Bush. “The Pilot-Wave Dynamics of Walking Droplets.” Physics of Fluids 25, no. 9 (2013): 091112.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
A millimetric droplet can be induced to bounce on the surface of a fluid bath by vibrating the bath near the droplet's resonant frequency (Figure 1(a) ). [superscript 1–3] The localized field of Faraday waves excited by the bouncing droplet can cause it to propel itself laterally across the surface, moving in resonance with its guiding wave field (Figure 1(b) ). [superscript 4,5] These walking droplets, or “walkers,” generally move in a straight line at constant speed; however, they can be diverted through interaction with boundaries or external forces. This hydrodynamic system represents a macroscopic realization of the pilot-wave theory of quantum dynamics proposed by Louis de Broglie, according to which microscopic particles are propelled through a resonant interaction with a wave field generated by the particle's internal vibration. [superscript 6] Coincidentally, it exhibits many behaviors once thought to be exclusive to the microscopic quantum realm, including single-particle diffraction, [superscript 7] tunneling, [superscript 8] quantized orbits, [superscript 9] and orbital-level splitting. [superscript 10]
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4820128
