Related papers: Using self-driven microswimmers for particle separ…

Microorganisms living in microfluidic environments often form multi-species swarms, where they can leverage collective motions to achieve enhanced transport and spreading. Nevertheless, there is a general lack of physical understandings of…

Recently, it was found that a wedgelike microparticle (referred to as "carrier") which is only allowed to translate but not to rotate exhibits a directed translational motion along the wedge cusp if it is exposed to a bath of microswimmers.…

Surface interactions provide a class of mechanisms which can be employed for propulsion of micro- and nanometer sized particles. We investigate the related efficiency of externally and self-propelled swimmers. A general scaling relation is…

We present an experimental study of capillary surfers, a new fluid-mediated active system that bridges the gap between dissipation- and inertia-dominated regimes. Surfers are wave-driven particles that self-propel and interact on a fluid…

A mesoscopic hydrodynamic model to simulate synthetic self-propelled Janus particles which is thermophoretically or diffusiophoretically driven is here developed. We first propose a model for a passive colloidal sphere which reproduces the…

Small objects can swim by generating around them fields or gradients which in turn induce fluid motion past their surface by phoretic surface effects. We quantify for arbitrary swimmer shapes and surface patterns, how efficient swimming…

Microswimmers can acquire information on the surrounding fluid by sensing mechanical queues. They can then navigate in response to these signals. We analyse this navigation by combining deep reinforcement learning with direct numerical…

Here we show that micro-swimmers can form a concealed swarm through synergistic cooperation in suppressing one another's disturbing flows. We then demonstrate how such a concealed swarm can actively gather around a favorite spot, point…

A number of novel experimental and theoretical results have recently been obtained on active soft matter, demonstrating the various interesting universal and anomalous features of this kind of driven systems. Here we consider a fundamental…

Machines enabled the Industrial Revolution and are central to modern technological progress: A machine's parts transmit forces, motion, and energy to one another in a predetermined manner. Today's engineering frontier, building artificial…

The size- and fluorescence-based sorting of micro- and nano-scale particles suspended in fluid presents a significant and important challenge for both sample analysis and for manufacturing of nanoparticle-based products. Here we demonstrate…

Magnetic microrobots that swim through liquid media are of interest for minimally invasive medical procedures, bioengineering, and manufacturing. Many of the envisaged applications, such as micromanipulation and targeted cargo delivery,…

The underlying mechanisms and physics of catalytic Janus microswimmers is highly complex, requiring details of the associated phoretic fields and the physiochemical properties of catalyst, particle, boundaries, and the fuel used. Therefore,…

We provide a generic scheme to separate the particles of a mixture by their physical properties like mass, friction or size. The scheme employs a periodically shaken two dimensional dissipative lattice and hinges on a simultaneous transport…

The interaction between swimming microorganisms or artificial self-propelled colloids and passive (tracer) particles in a fluid leads to enhanced diffusion of the tracers. This enhancement has attracted strong interest, as it could lead to…

Phoretic swimmers are a class of artificial active particles that has received significant attention in recent years. By making use of self-generated gradients (e.g. in temperature, electric potential or some chemical product) phoretic…

Emergent phenomena share the fascinating property of not being obvious consequences of the design of the system in which they appear. This characteristic is no less relevant when attempting to simulate such phenomena, given that the outcome…

We discuss recent progress in the theoretical description of chemotaxis by coupling the diffusion equation of a chemical species to equations describing the motion of sensing microorganisms. In particular, we discuss models for…

Cells and microorganisms employ dynamic shape changes to enable steering and avoidance for efficient spatial exploration and collective organization. In contrast, active colloids, their synthetic counterparts, currently lack similar…

We review recent experimental, numerical, and analytical results on active suspensions of self-propelled colloidal beads moving in (quasi) two dimensions. Active colloids form part of the larger theme of active matter, which is noted for…