Poster: http://www.physics.uwo.ca/colloquia/Colloquia%20Notices/2012_2013/BUSH%20Colloquium.pdf
Western University
DEPARTMENT OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY
PHYSICS & ASTRONOMY COLLOQUIUM
Date: Thursday, 20th September 2012
Time: 1:30 p.m.
Location: Physics & Astronomy *New* Seminar Room 100
Dr. John Bush
Department of Mathematics
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
“Quantum behavior at a macroscopic scale: Droplets walking on the impossible pilot wave”
ABSTRACT
Yves Couder 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, including single-particle diffraction and interference, tunneling, quantized orbits and orbital level splitting. Theoretical developments provide rationale for the complex behavior of the bouncing droplets, and yield a trajectory equation for the walking droplets. A correspondence is developed between this fluid system and de Broglie’s relativistic pilot-wave theory of quantum mechanics. New experiments are presented, and indicate the potential value of this hydrodynamic system for both visualizing and understanding quantum mechanics.
Refreshments will be available.