Some of you heard John Bush talking about pilot wave theory in Eddie's group meeting. Most of the experimental results are due to Couder in case you are interested . Best wishes, Ramis ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Shirley Entzminger <daisymae(a)math.mit.edu> Date: Thu, Oct 7, 2010 at 7:23 PM Subject: PHYSICAL MATHEMATICS SEMINAR -- Speaker: Yves Couder (Universite Paris Diderot -Paris7) -- Tuesday, Oct. 12th -- TIME: 2:30 PM in Building 2, Room 105 To: daisymae(a)math.mit.edu PHYSICAL MATHEMATICS SEMINAR DATE: Tuesday, October 12, 2010 TIME: 2:30 PM LOCATION: Building 2, Room 105 Refreshments at 3:30 PM in Building 2, Room 290. TITLE: A particle and its pilot wave at macroscopic scale: the role of a path memory SPEAKER: Yves Couder (University of Paris Diderot -Paris7) ABSTRACT: The behavior of the fundamental objects of physics at quantum scale is dominated by the wave-particle duality. This characteristic is usually thought to have no equivalent in macroscopic physics where mass-like objects and waves are distinct entities. We have shown recently that a droplet bouncing on a vertically vibrated liquid interface can become dynamically coupled to the surface wave it excites. It thus becomes a self-propelled "walker", a symbiotic object formed by the droplet and its associated wave. Through several experiments, we address one central question. How can a continuous and spatially extended wave have a common dynamics with a localized and discrete droplet? We will show that when its wave is split (diffraction, interference, tunneling etc), one droplet has an apparently random response but that a deterministic behavior is statistically recovered when the experiment is repeated. The structure of the wave field is responsible for these properties as its interference structure contains what we have called a "path-memory". A remarkable effect of this memory is observed when the walker, submitted to a transverse force, has an orbiting motion. The measured orbit diameter, instead of varying continuously with the force can only take a discrete set of quantized values. The limits in which these results can be compared to those at quantum scale will be discussed. ************************************************************************ Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of Mathematics Cambridge, MA 02139 For more information, please visit... http://math.mit.edu/pms/fall10/ _______________________________________________ qip mailing list qip(a)mit.edu http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/qip