Related papers: Hydrodynamic capture of microswimmers into sphere-…
In biological systems, microswimmers often propel themselves through complex media. However, many aspects of swimming mechanisms in non-Newtonian fluids remain unclear. This study considers the propulsion of two types of single spherical…
Biological microswimmers such as bacteria and sperm cells often encounter complex biological fluid environments. Here we use the well-known squirmer microswimmer model to show the importance of the local fluid microstructure and…
We analyze the dynamics of small particles vertically confined, by means of a linear restoring force, to move within a horizontal fluid slab in a three-dimensional (3D) homogeneous isotropic turbulent velocity field. The model that we…
Self-propelled particles can spontaneously form dense phases from a dilute suspension in a process referred to as motility-induced phase separation. The properties of the out-of-equilibrium structures that are formed are governed by the…
In this article, we consider a swimmer (i.e. a self-deformable body) immersed in a fluid, the flow of which is governed by the stationary Stokes equations. This model is relevant for studying the locomotion of microorganisms or micro robots…
We use the image solution technique to compute the leading order frequency-dependent self-mobility function of a small solid particle moving perpendicular to the surface of a spherical capsule whose membrane possesses shearing and bending…
Breaking spatial symmetry is an essential requirement for phoretic active particles to swim at low Reynolds number. This fundamental prerequisite for swimming at the micro-scale is fulfilled either by chemical patterning of the surface of…
We analyze the dynamics of a tracer particle embedded in a bath of hard spheres confined in a channel of varying section. By means of Brownian dynamics simulations we apply a constant force on the tracer particle and discuss the dependence…
We investigate the electrostatic interactions between two charged anisotropic conductors using a combination of asymptotic and numerical methods. For widely separated particles, we employ the method of reflections to analyze the…
Slender bodies capable of spontaneous motion in the absence of external actuation in an otherwise quiescent fluid are common in biological, physical and technological contexts. The interplay between the spontaneous fluid flow, Brownian…
The majority of studies on self-propelled particles and microswimmers concentrates on objects that do not feature a deterministic bending of their trajectory. However, perfect axial symmetry is hardly found in reality, and shape-asymmetric…
We derive a hydrodynamic model for the motion of inertial particles with a spherical hard core, interacting through lubrication forces and pairwise repulsive forces. The repulsion arises from the assumption that each particle is surrounded…
The field of synthetic active matter has, thus far, been led by efforts to create point-like, isolated (yet interacting) self-propelled objects (\emph{e.g.} colloids, droplets, microrobots) and understanding their collective dynamics. The…
We report, for the first time, some experimental observations regarding a new type of long range interaction between rigid particles that prevails when they are suspended in an soft elastic gel. A denser particle submerges itself to a…
We investigate the collective transport properties of microscopic magnetic rollers that propel close to a surface due to a circularly polarized, rotating magnetic field. The applied field exerts a torque to the particles, which induces a…
Catalytic colloidal swimmers that propel due to self-generated fluid flows exhibit strong affinity for surfaces. We here report experimental measurements of significantly different velocities of such microswimmers in the vicinity of…
This review treats asymmetric colloidal particles moving through their host fluid under the action of some form of propulsion. The propulsion can come from an external body force or from external shear flow. It may also come from…
Locomotion is typically studied either in continuous media where bodies and legs experience forces generated by the flowing medium, or on solid substrates dominated by friction. In the former, centralized coordination is believed to…
In low Reynolds number swimming and pumping, differently to everyday experience, a net motion (or flow) can be achieved only if the constructing parts of the swimmer (or pump) follow a non-trivial pattern of motion, in order to break time…
The self-propelled motion of microscopic bodies immersed in a fluid medium is studied using molecular dynamics simulation. The advantage of the atomistic approach is that the detailed level of description allows complete freedom in…