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FLUIDS

Quantum physics dropwise

Nature Physics volume 14, pages 209–210 (2018)Cite this article

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Classical wave-driven particles can mimic basic quantum properties, but how far this parallel extends is yet to be seen. Evidence for quantum-like mirages in a system of droplets moving on a fluid surface pushes the analogy into many-body territory.

Interference and superposition of particle motion was, until recently, believed to be unique to quantum mechanics. These concepts are useful for describing extended fields — or waves — whose effects can be overlaid at each point in space, but seem incompatible with localized particles following well-defined orbits. This belief was recently shown to be wrong for a class of wave-driven particles via experiments on millimetric silicon droplets bouncing on a silicon bath1. Now, writing in Nature Physics, Pedro Sáenz and colleagues2 have shown that a particle in the same system slowly builds up a spatial probability distribution that is closely correlated with the average wave field it excites.

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Fig. 1: The walking droplet double-slit experiment.

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  1. Department of Physics, Center for Fluid Dynamics, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Tomas Bohr

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  1. Tomas Bohr
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Correspondence to Tomas Bohr.

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Bohr, T. Quantum physics dropwise. Nature Phys 14, 209–210 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41567-017-0015-6

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