Extending the Droplet-Wave Statistical Correspondence in Walking Droplet Dynamics

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mao, Skyler, Darrow, David
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Mao, Skyler
Darrow, David
author_facet Mao, Skyler
Darrow, David
contents Walking droplets -- millimetric oil droplets that self-propel across the surface of a vibrating fluid bath -- exhibit striking emergent statistics that remain only partially understood. In particular, in a variety of experiments, a robust correspondence has been observed between the droplet's statistical distribution and the time-average of the wave field that guides it. M. Durey, P. A. Milewski, and J. W. M. Bush, Chaos 28, 096108 (2018) rigorously established such a correspondence for single-droplet systems with a single, instantaneous droplet-bath impact during each vibration period, but numerical and experimental evidence suggests that the correspondence should hold far more broadly. Laboratory droplet systems, for instance, often exhibit complex bouncing modes that do not adhere to these hypotheses. We attempt to complete this program in the present work, rigorously extending this statistical correspondence to account for arbitrary droplet-bath impact models, multi-droplet interactions, and non-resonant bouncing. We investigate this correspondence numerically in systems of one and two droplets in 1-D geometries, and we highlight how the time-averaged wave field can distinguish between correlated and uncorrelated pairs of droplets.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2508_09506
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Extending the Droplet-Wave Statistical Correspondence in Walking Droplet Dynamics
Mao, Skyler
Darrow, David
Fluid Dynamics
Dynamical Systems
Walking droplets -- millimetric oil droplets that self-propel across the surface of a vibrating fluid bath -- exhibit striking emergent statistics that remain only partially understood. In particular, in a variety of experiments, a robust correspondence has been observed between the droplet's statistical distribution and the time-average of the wave field that guides it. M. Durey, P. A. Milewski, and J. W. M. Bush, Chaos 28, 096108 (2018) rigorously established such a correspondence for single-droplet systems with a single, instantaneous droplet-bath impact during each vibration period, but numerical and experimental evidence suggests that the correspondence should hold far more broadly. Laboratory droplet systems, for instance, often exhibit complex bouncing modes that do not adhere to these hypotheses. We attempt to complete this program in the present work, rigorously extending this statistical correspondence to account for arbitrary droplet-bath impact models, multi-droplet interactions, and non-resonant bouncing. We investigate this correspondence numerically in systems of one and two droplets in 1-D geometries, and we highlight how the time-averaged wave field can distinguish between correlated and uncorrelated pairs of droplets.
title Extending the Droplet-Wave Statistical Correspondence in Walking Droplet Dynamics
topic Fluid Dynamics
Dynamical Systems
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.09506