Superwalking droplets

TL;DR

This paper introduces superwalkers, a new class of larger, faster walking droplets on oscillating liquids, revealing novel multi-droplet behaviors and expanding the understanding of droplet-wave interactions.

Contribution

It reports the discovery and characterization of superwalkers, larger and faster droplets, in a two-frequency driving setup, demonstrating new dynamic behaviors.

Findings

Superwalkers are more than twice the size of typical walkers.

Superwalkers can travel over three times faster than the fastest traditional walkers.

The study reveals new multi-droplet behaviors enabled by superwalkers.

Abstract

A \textit{walker} is a droplet of liquid that self-propels on the free surface of an oscillating bath of the same liquid through feedback between the droplet and its wave field. We have studied walking droplets in the presence of two driving frequencies and have observed a new class of walking droplets, which we coin \textit{superwalkers}. Superwalkers may be more than double the size of the largest walkers, may travel at more than triple the speed of the fastest ones, and enable a plethora of novel multi-droplet behaviors.