Dynamical phenomena Walking and orbiting droplets

Small drops can bounce indefinitely on a bath of the same liquid if the container is oscillated vertically at a sufficiently high acceleration. Here we show that bouncing droplets can be made to 'walk' at constant horizontal velocity on the liquid surface by increasing this acceleration. T...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature 2005-09, Vol.437 (7056), p.208-208
Main Authors: Fort, E, Boudaoud, A, Couder, Y, Protière, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Capillary waves
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Small drops can bounce indefinitely on a bath of the same liquid if the container is oscillated vertically at a sufficiently high acceleration. 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 state 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 other.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/437208a