MIT Lab Uses Walking Droplets to Bridge Classical and Quantum Worlds
Pilot-wave hydrodynamics (Quantum phenomena in macroscopic hydrodynamic systems)
Since 2005, when Yves Couder and Emmanuel Fort found that droplets walking on a vibrating fluid bath mimic quantum phenomena, John W. M. Bush's MIT group has explored these hydrodynamic quantum analogs. Their work has uncovered new analogs like walkers in corrals and Friedel oscillations, and led to a generalized pilot-wave framework that mathematically bridges the macroscopic droplet system with de Broglie and Bohm's quantum theories, inspiring a new Hydrodynamic Quantum Theory.
The key dynamical features responsible for the quantum features of the walking-droplet system are the resonance between the particle and the wave, and the concomitant lingering quasi-monochromatic pilot-wave field.