9,094 research outputs found
Towards heterotic computing with droplets in a fully automated droplet-maker platform
The control and prediction of complex chemical systems is a difficult problem due to the nature of the interactions, transformations and processes occurring. From self-assembly to catalysis and self-organization, complex chemical systems are often heterogeneous mixtures that at the most extreme exhibit system-level functions, such as those that could be observed in a living cell. In this paper, we outline an approach to understand and explore complex chemical systems using an automated droplet maker to control the composition, size and position of the droplets in a predefined chemical environment. By investigating the spatio-temporal dynamics of the droplets, the aim is to understand how to control system-level emergence of complex chemical behaviour and even view the system-level behaviour as a programmable entity capable of information processing. Herein, we explore how our automated droplet-maker platform could be viewed as a prototype chemical heterotic computer with some initial data and example problems that may be viewed as potential chemically embodied computations
Self-organization into quantized eigenstates of a classical wave driven particle
A growing number of dynamical situations involve the coupling of particles or
singularities with physical waves. In principle these situations are very far
from the wave-particle duality at quantum scale where the wave is probabilistic
by nature. Yet some dual characteristics were observed in a system where a
macroscopic droplet is guided by a pilot-wave it generates. Here we investigate
the behaviour of these entities when confined in a two-dimensional harmonic
potential well. A discrete set of stable orbits is observed, in the shape of
successive generalized Cassinian-like curves (circles, ovals, lemniscates,
trefoils...). Along these specific trajectories, the droplet motion is
characterized by a double quantization of the orbit spatial extent and of the
angular momentum. We show that these trajectories are intertwined with the
dynamical build-up of central wave-field modes. These dual self-organized modes
form a basis of eigenstates on which more complex motions are naturally
decomposed
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