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Wave-Based Turing Machine: Time Reversal and Information Erasing

S. Perrard, E. Fort, and Y. Couder
Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 094502 – Published 26 August 2016
Physics logo See Focus story: Surface Waves Store Bouncing Droplet’s History
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Abstract

The investigation of dynamical systems has revealed a deep-rooted difference between waves and objects regarding temporal reversibility and particlelike objects. In nondissipative chaos, the dynamic of waves always remains time reversible, unlike that of particles. Here, we explore the dynamics of a wave-particle entity. It consists in a drop bouncing on a vibrated liquid bath, self-propelled and piloted by the surface waves it generates. This walker, in which there is an information exchange between the particle and the wave, can be analyzed in terms of a Turing machine with waves as the information repository. The experiments reveal that in this system, the drop can read information backwards while erasing it. The drop can thus backtrack on its previous trajectory. A transient temporal reversibility, restricted to the drop motion, is obtained in spite of the system being both dissipative and chaotic.

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  • Received 17 January 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.094502

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Physical Systems
  1. Techniques
Fluid DynamicsNonlinear Dynamics

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Surface Waves Store Bouncing Droplet’s History

Published 26 August 2016

A droplet bouncing and wandering across a liquid surface can produce waves that store the history of its chaotic motion.

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Authors & Affiliations

S. Perrard1,*, E. Fort2, and Y. Couder1

  • 1Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes, Université Paris Diderot, CNRS UMR 7057, Bâtiment Condorcet, 10 rue Alice Domon et Léonie Duquet, 75013 Paris, France
  • 2Institut Langevin, ESPCI Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS UMR 7587, 1 rue Jussieu, 75238 Paris, France

  • *Corresponding author. sperrard@uchicago.edu Present address: James Franck Institute, University of Chicago, 929 East 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.

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Issue

Vol. 117, Iss. 9 — 26 August 2016

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