Memory induced Magnus effect

Spinning objects which move through air or liquids experience a Magnus force. This effect is commonly exploited in ball sports but also of considerable importance for applications and fundamental science. Opposed to large objects where Magnus forces are strong, they are only weak at small scales and eventually vanish for overdamped micron-sized particles in simple liquids. Here we demonstrate an about one-million-fold enhanced Magnus force of spinning colloids in viscoelastic fluids. Such fluids are characterized by a time-delayed response to external perturbations which causes a deformation of the fluidic network around the moving particle. When the particle additionally spins, the deformation field becomes misaligned relative to the particle's moving direction, leading to a force perpendicular to the direction of travel and the spinning axis. The presence of strongly enhanced memory-induced Magnus forces at microscales opens novel applications for particle sorting and steering, the creation and visualization of anomalous flows and more.