Hydrodynamic Quantum Analogs

In 2005, Yves Couder discovered that a millimetric droplet may walk on the surface of a vibrating fluid bath through a resonant interaction with its own wave field. This hydrodynamic pilot wave system has since generated considerable activity in the physics and applied mathematics communities. Not only is it a rich new dynamical system, but it extends the range of classical systems to include several features once thought to be exclusive to the microscopic, quantum realm. This focus issue is devoted to recent studies of and relating to pilot-wave hydrodynamics, a field that attempts to answer the following simple but provocative question: Might deterministic chaotic pilot-wave dynamics underlie quantum statistics?

Guest Editors: John W. M. Bush, Yves Couder, Tristan Gilet, Paul A. Milewski and Andre Nachbin