Analogies Between Fluid Mechanics and Quantum Mechanics
At the heart of this research lies the observation that certain macroscopic phenomena exhibit striking similarities to quantum behaviors. One example involves the behavior of oil droplets guided by surface waves, known as walking droplets. When subjected to specific conditions, these droplets display wave-particle duality, where they behave simultaneously as particles and waves. This phenomenon mirrors the behavior of quantum particles, which exist as both physical entities and probability distributions describing their possible states.
Another intriguing analogy concerns the Zeeman effect, which describes the splitting of atomic energy levels in the presence of an external magnetic field. In the context of macroscopic oil droplets, researchers have observed a comparable phenomenon when applying an external rotation to the bath containing the droplets. This rotation leads to the formation of bound states, analogous to the energy levels of atoms, which can be split into distinct families depending on the direction of rotation relative to the external force.