Experimental evidence of wave chaos from a double slit experiment with water surface waves

Abstract

In this paper, we report experimental evidence of wave chaos using the double slit water surface wave experiment. We demonstrate that classical dynamics of a domain manifests itself in the interference patterns after the diffraction behind the double slit. For a domain whose classical dynamics is integrable clear interference fringes can be observed behind the double slits; for a domain whose classical dynamics is chaotic, however, interference fringes can totally disappear. Our experimental results clearly demonstrate that the centuries-old double slit experiment can render an excellent tool to observe the manifestations of wave chaos. © 2008 The American Physical Society.