Spin lattices of walking droplets

ORAL

Abstract

We present experiments that demonstrate the spontaneous emergence of collective behavior in spin lattices of droplets walking on a vibrating fluid surface. Circular wells at the bottom of the fluid bath encourage individual droplets to walk in clockwise or counter-clockwise direction along circular trajectories centered at the lattice sites. A thin fluid layer between the wells enables wave-mediated interactions between neighboring walkers resulting in coherent rotation dynamics across the lattice. When the pair-coupling is sufficiently strong, interactions between neighboring droplets may induce local spin flips leading to ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic order. Results for different lattice geometries are discussed.

Presenters

  • Pedro J Saenz

    MIT, Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT

Authors

  • Pedro J Saenz

    MIT, Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT

  • Giuseppe Pucci

    Brown University

  • Alexis Goujon

    UC Berkeley

  • Rodolfo R Rosales

    MIT, Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT

  • Jorn Dunkel

    MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • John Bush

    Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT, Massachusetts Inst of Tech-MIT