Date/Time Date(s) - 27/01/20163:30 pm - 4:30 pm
Title: Hydrodynamic Quantum Analogs: Droplets Walking on the Impossible Pilot Wave
Speaker: Dr. John Bush
Institute: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept of Mathematics
Location: ABB 102
Description:
A decade ago, Yves Couder and coworkers discovered that droplets walking on a vibrating fluid bath exhibit several features previously thought to be exclusive to the microscopic, quantum realm. These walking droplets propel themselves by virtue of a resonant interaction with their own wave field. Thus, the system is reminiscent of the double-wave pilot-wave dynamics envisaged by Louis de Broglie. New theoretical developments provide rationale for the complex behavior of the bouncing droplets, and yield a trajectory equation for the walking droplets. Experimental and theoretical results in turn reveal and rationalize the emergence of quantization and wave-like statistics from pilot-wave dynamics in a number of settings. The relation between this hydrodynamic system and various realist models of quantum dynamics is discussed.