On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 11:46 PM, Harry Veeder <[email protected]> wrote:
> > > http://www.nonlinearstudies.at/quantummechanics.php > > Emergent Quantum Mechanics > > > One is here reminded of Feynman’s famous discussion of the double slit, > and his introductory remark: "We choose to examine a phenomenon which is > impossible, absolutely impossible, to explain in any classical way and has > in it the heart of quantum mechanics. In reality, it contains the only > mystery." *However, the above-mentioned recent classical physics > experiments not only disprove Feynman’s statement w.r.t. the double slit, > but prove that a whole set of “quantum” features can be shown to occur in > completely classical ones, among them being the Heisenberg uncertainty > principle, indeterministic behaviour of a particle despite a deterministic > evolution of its statistical ensemble over many runs, nonlocal interaction, > tunnelling, and, of course, a combination of all these. *We are referring > to the beautiful series of experiments performed by the group of Yves > Couder using small liquid drops that can be kept bouncing on the surface of > a bath of the same fluid for an unlimited time when the substrate > oscillates vertically. These “bouncers” can become coupled to the surface > waves they generate and thus become “walkers” moving at constant velocity > on the liquid surface. A “walker” is defined by a lock-in phenomenon so > that the drop falls systematically on the forward front of the wave > generated by its previous bouncings. It is thus a “symbiotic” dynamical > phenomenon consisting of the moving droplet dressed with the Faraday wave > packet it emits. Couder and Fort report on single-particle diffraction and > interference of walkers. *They show “how this wavelike behaviour of > particle trajectories can result from the feedback of a remote sensing of > the surrounding world by the waves they emit”.* > > Of course, the “walkers” of Couder’s group, despite showing so many > features they have in common with quantum systems, cannot be employed > one-to-one as a model for the latter, with the most obvious difference > being that quantum systems are not restricted to two-dimensional surfaces. > However, along with the understanding of how the Schrödinger equation can > be derived via nonequilibrium thermodynamics, also the mutual relationship > of particle and wave behaviour has become clearer. > > > A video of the "walkers" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmC0ygr08tE The pilot-wave dynamics of walking droplets Harry
