Brownian motion of a circle swimmer in a harmonic trap
Abstract
We study the dynamics of a Brownian circle swimmer with a time-dependent self-propulsion velocity in an external temporally varying harmonic potential. For several situations, the noise-free swimming paths, the noise-averaged mean trajectories, and the mean square displacements are calculated analytically or by computer simulation. Based on our results, we discuss optimal swimming strategies in order to explore a maximum spatial range around the trap center. In particular, we find a resonance situation for the maximum escape distance as a function of the various frequencies in the system. Moreover, the influence of the Brownian noise is analyzed by comparing noise-free trajectories at zero temperature with the corresponding noise-averaged trajectories at finite temperature. The latter reveal various complex self-similar spiral or rosette-like patterns. Our predictions can be tested in experiments on artificial and biological microswimmers under dynamical external confinement.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1609.09788,
title = {Brownian motion of a circle swimmer in a harmonic trap},
author = {Soudeh Jahanshahi and Hartmut Löwen and Borge ten Hagen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1609.09788},
year = {2017}
}
Comments
16 pages, 11 figures