Observation of the Aharonov-Bohm Effect in Pilot-Wave Hydrodynamics

TL;DR

This study demonstrates an analog of the Aharonov-Bohm effect using a hydrodynamic pilot-wave system, where a droplet's motion is influenced by a vortex without direct contact, revealing quantum-like phase phenomena in a classical system.

Contribution

First experimental observation of an Aharonov-Bohm-like effect in a hydrodynamic system, showing vortex-induced phase shifts without direct vortex influence.

Findings

Droplet motion exhibits vortex-dependent bias in orbital speed.

Hydrodynamic system shows Wigner-like phase-space distributions.

Demonstrates a gauge-like, flux-dependent translation in a classical system.

Abstract

We report the results of an experimental study of an analog of the Aharonov-Bohm (AB) effect achieved with the hydrodynamic pilot-wave system. A walking droplet is confined to an annular cavity that encircles a shielded vortex, but lies outside its range of direct influence. While there is no vortex-induced flow in the immediate vicinity of the droplets, the vortex modifies the droplet's spatially extended pilot-wave field that guides its motion, producing a vortex-dependent bias in the droplet's orbital speed. High-speed tracking and delay-embedding reconstructions yield Wigner-like phase-space distributions for this hydrodynamic system that exhibits a rigid, flux-dependent translation, providing a force-free, gauge-like realization of an AB-type phase.