MIT researchers expand the range of quantum behaviors that
can be replicated in fluidic systems, offering a new perspective on
wave-particle duality.
In the early days of quantum physics, in an attempt to
explain the wavelike behavior of quantum particles, the French physicist Louis
de Broglie proposed what he called a “pilot wave” theory. According to de
Broglie, moving particles — such as electrons, or the photons in a beam of
light — are borne along on waves of some type, like driftwood on a tide.