English

Single-particle Fraunhofer diffraction in a classical pilot-wave model

Quantum Physics 2025-10-01 v1

Abstract

Walking oil droplets offer a qualitative, classical analog of single-particle diffraction. Making this analog quantitative has proven challenging, leading recent authors to conjecture that no classical pilot-wave model could exhibit Fraunhofer diffraction. We revisit the problem with the recent, Lagrangian pilot-wave model of Darrow and Bush [Symmetry 16, 149 (2024)], and find agreement with both single- and double-slit Fraunhofer patterns. We identify two distinct dynamical features that enable our model to capture Fraunhofer diffraction and distinguish it from previous classical pilot-wave models.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2509.25574,
  title  = {Single-particle Fraunhofer diffraction in a classical pilot-wave model},
  author = {David Darrow and John W. M. Bush},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.25574},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

8 pages, 7 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-01T06:06:25.536Z