ESPCI web site
Pilot-wave hydrodynamics
Yves Couder, Emmanuel Fort and coworkers have recently discovered that droplets walking on a vibrating fluid bath exhibit several features previously thought to be peculiar to the microscopic, quantum realm. Theoretical developments provide rationale for the complex behavior of the bouncing droplets, and yield a trajectory equation for the walking droplets. Experimental results reveal the emergence of wave-like statistics from pilot-wave dynamics for droplets walking in confined geometries, and for droplets walking on a rotating fluid bath. Theoretical results indicate the manner in which wave-like statistics emerge from pilot-wave dynamics for droplets walking under the influence of a central force. The relation between this fluid system and de Broglie’s relativistic pilot-wave theory of quantum mechanics is discussed.