Dancing Volvox: Hydrodynamic Bound States of Swimming Algae
Soft Condensed Matter
2015-05-13 v1
Abstract
The spherical alga Volvox swims by means of flagella on thousands of surface somatic cells. This geometry and its large size make it a model organism for studying the fluid dynamics of multicellularity. Remarkably, when two nearby Volvox swim close to a solid surface, they attract one another and can form stable bound states in which they "waltz" or "minuet" around each other. A surface-mediated hydrodynamic attraction combined with lubrication forces between spinning, bottom-heavy Volvox explains the formation, stability and dynamics of the bound states. These phenomena are suggested to underlie observed clustering of Volvox at surfaces.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0901.2087,
title = {Dancing Volvox: Hydrodynamic Bound States of Swimming Algae},
author = {Knut Drescher and Kyriacos C. Leptos and Idan Tuval and Takuji Ishikawa and Timothy J. Pedley and Raymond E. Goldstein},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0901.2087},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
4 pages, 5 figures