Real-Time Immersion of Physical Experiments in Virtual Wave-Physics Domains

While laboratories devoted to wave propagation enable the study of complex wave phenomena and the discovery of physical relations, unfortunately they suffer from undesired wave-field reflections from their boundaries, and the samples under investigation are restricted in size for practical reasons. This study shows how those limitations can be overcome by fully embedding physical wave-propagation experiments in larger numerical simulations, such that waves can propagate seamlessly between both realms. This approach allows previously inaccessible wave phenomena to be investigated, and could shift the status quo of wave-physics experimentation.