Walking and orbiting droplets

Y. Couder, S. Protière, E. Fort and A. Boudaoud ()
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Y. Couder: Matières et Systèmes Complexes, Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot
S. Protière: Matières et Systèmes Complexes, Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot
E. Fort: Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques, Université Paris 7 Denis Diderot
A. Boudaoud: Laboratoire de Physique Statistique, 24 rue Lhomond

Nature, 2005, vol. 437, issue 7056, 208-208

Abstract: Abstract Small drops can bounce indefinitely on a bath of the same liquid if the container is oscillated vertically at a sufficiently high acceleration1. Here we show that bouncing droplets can be made to ‘walk’ at constant horizontal velocity on the liquid surface by increasing this acceleration. This transition yields a new type of localized state2,3,4,5 with particle–wave duality: surface capillary waves emanate from a bouncing drop, which self-propels by interaction with its own wave and becomes a walker. When two walkers come close, they interact through their waves and this ‘collision’ may cause the two walkers to orbit around each other6,7,8.

Date: 2005
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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DOI: 10.1038/437208a

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