Daniel M. Harris
John W. M. Bush
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Mathematics
Cambridge, MA

Image by D.M.Harris and J.W.M.Bush

Faraday waves form on the surface of a vibrated fluid bath when a critical vibration amplitude is exceeded (Figure 1) [1]. Below this threshold, a millimetric droplet can bounce indefinitely on the bath, exciting a localized field of Faraday waves. The bouncing drop may self-propel through a resonant interaction with its own wave field (Figure 2) and so translate steadily across the surface [2,3]. The walking drop system exhibits many features previously thought to be exclusive to the microscopic quantum realm, and represents a macroscopic realization of a pilot-wave system of the form proposed in the 1920s by Louis de Broglie [4].

Abstract Link

http://meetings.aps.org/Meeting/DFD14/Session/D12.1

References

[1] M. Faraday, "On the forms and states of fluids on vibrating elastic surfaces", Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, vol.121, pp.319-340 (1831).

[2] S. Protière, A. Boudaoud & Y. Couder, "Particle-wave association on a fluid interface", Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol.554, pp.85-108 (2006). http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=431290&fileId=S0022112006009190

[3] J. Moláček, J.W.M. Bush, "Drops walking on a vibrating bath: Towards a hydrodynamic pilot-wave theory" Journal of Fluid Mechanics, vol.727, pp.612-647 (2013). http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8947531&fileId=S0022112013002802

[4] J.W.M. Bush, "Pilot-wave hydrodynamics", Annual Review of Fluid Mechanics, vol.47, pp. 269-292 (2015). http://www.annualreviews.org/doi/pdf/10.1146/annurev-fluid-010814-014506

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Contact Information

John W. M. Bush
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Department of Mathematics
Cambridge, MA
bush@math.mit.edu