What can bouncing oil droplets tell us about quantum mechanics?
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(2020) 10:39
PAPER IN PHILOSOPHY OF THE NATURAL SCIENCES
What can bouncing oil droplets tell us about quantum mechanics? Peter W. Evans1
2 ´ · Karim P. Y. Thebault
Received: 30 October 2019 / Accepted: 20 July 2020 / © Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract A recent series of experiments have demonstrated that a classical fluid mechanical system, constituted by an oil droplet bouncing on a vibrating fluid surface, can be induced to display a number of behaviours previously considered to be distinctly quantum. To explain this correspondence it has been suggested that the fluid mechanical system provides a single-particle classical model of de Broglie’s idiosyncratic ‘double solution’ pilot wave theory of quantum mechanics. In this paper we assess the epistemic function of the bouncing oil droplet experiments in relation to quantum mechanics. We find that the bouncing oil droplets are best conceived as an analogue illustration of quantum phenomena, rather than an analogue simulation, and, furthermore, that their epistemic value should be understood in terms of how-possibly explanation, rather than confirmation. Analogue illustration, unlike analogue simulation, is not a form of ‘material surrogacy’, in which source empirical phenomena in a system of one kind can be understood as ‘standing in for’ target phenomena in a system of another kind. Rather, analogue illustration leverages a correspondence between certain empirical phenomena displayed by a source system and aspects of the ontology of a target system. On the one hand, this limits the potential inferential power of analogue illustrations, but, on the other, it widens their potential inferential scope. In particular, through analogue illustration we can learn, in the sense of gaining how-possibly understanding, about the putative ontology of a target system via an experiment. As such, the potential scientific value of these extraordinary experiments is undoubtedly a significant one.
PWE’s work on this paper was supported by the Templeton World Charity Foundation (TWCF 0064/AB38), the University of Queensland, and the Australian Government through the Australian Research Council (DE170100808). KT’s work on this paper was supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, UK (AH/P004415/1). Both authors contriubted equally to the manuscipt. Peter W. Evans
[email protected]
Extended author information available on the last page of the article.
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European Journal for Philosophy of Science
(2020) 10:39
Keywords Quantum mechanics · Pilot wave theory · Walker experiments · Analogue experimentation · Analogue illustration · How-possibly explanation
1 Introduction In 2005, a team at Paris Diderot University led by Yves Couder and Emmanuel Fort discovered that an oil droplet bouncing on a vibrating fluid surface can be made to ‘walk’ horizontally across the surface. These ‘walkers’ display a kind of waveparticle duality: the bouncing droplet is self-propelled by interacting with the surface waves it creates. A series of subsequent experiment
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