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  • Open Access

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

David Darrow* and John W. M. Bush†

  • *Contact author: ddarrow@mit.edu
  • †Contact author: bush@math.mit.edu
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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033288 – Published 26 September, 2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gn48-nxwk

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.

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Phys. Rev. Research 7, 033288– Published 26 September, 2025
  • Received 7 December 2024
  • Revised 7 May 2025
  • Accepted 10 September 2025
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