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Buffon's Brownian needles: harnessing thermal motion for stochastic sampling

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Abstract

We demonstrate a physical implementation of Monte Carlo sampling using the Brownian motion of microscopic rods, applied to the classical Buffon's needle experiment. In this way, a problem in geometric probability is mapped onto a Monte Carlo method, with a physical system performing key aspects of the computation. The experiment's parameters are embedded directly: the rods length encodes the probability integral, while their thermal motion supplies the sampling. Although only a toy-model system, this approach illustrates how embedding probabilistic structure into soft matter can provide a low-energy pathway for stochastic computation that exploits freely available thermal noise.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)8897-8903
Number of pages7
JournalSoft Matter
Volume21
Issue number46
Early online date30 Oct 2025
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Dec 2025

Funding

This project is funded in part by the Advanced Research + Invention Agency (ARIA). JS acknowledges the DFG-ANR project Rodrolls- 490954343, ANR-21-CE30-0058.

Keywords

  • Monte Carlo sampling
  • Buffon's needle experiment
  • soft matter

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