A
decade ago, Yves Couder and Emmanuel Fort 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 wavefield,
and so represent the first realization of a macroscopic pilot-wave system. 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, including Louis de Broglie’s double-wave pilot-wave
theory, is discussed, and would seem to invite a critical
revisitation of quantum foundations.
This Colloquium is jointly sponsored by Fields Institute for Research in Mathematical Sciences and the Department of Physics.