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.

*This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation through grants CMMI-1727565 and DMS-1614043.

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