Related papers: Self-propulsion through symmetry breaking
We examine a mechanism of locomotion of active particles whose surface is uniformly coated with mobile enzymes. The enzymes catalyze a reaction that drives phoretic flows but their homogeneous distribution forbids locomotion by symmetry. We…
Current models of phoretic transport rely on molecular forces creating a "diffuse" particle-fluid interface. We investigate theoretically an alternative mechanism, in which a diffuse interface emerges solely due to a non-vanishing…
Self-diffusiophoretic particles exploit local concentration gradients of a solute species in order to self-propel at the micron scale. While an isolated chemically- and geometrically-isotropic particle cannot swim, we show that it can…
We consider model of a complex particle that consists of a rigid shell and a nucleus with spatial asymmetric interaction. The particle's dynamics with the nucleus driven by a periodic excitation is considered. It is shown that…
The motion of self-propelled particles can be rectified by asymmetric or ratchet-like periodic patterns in space. Here we show that a non-zero average drift can already be induced in a periodic potential with symmetric barriers when the…
Charged colloidal particles propel themselves through asymmetric fluxes of chemically generated ions on their surface. We show that asymmetry in the surface charge distribution introduces a new mode of self-phoretic motion for chemically…
Propulsion of otherwise passive objects is achieved by mechanisms of active driving. We concentrate on cases in which the direction of active drive is subject to spontaneous symmetry breaking. In our case, this direction will be maintained,…
We study the diffusiophoretic self-propulsion of a colloidal catalytic particle due to a surface chemical reaction in a vicinity of a solid wall. Diffusiophoresis is a chemico-mechanical transduction mechanism in which a concentration…
A theory of self-propelled particles is developed in two dimensions assuming that the particles can be deformed from a circular shape when the propagating velocity is increased. A coupled set of equations in terms of the velocity and a…
A self-propelled particle in a two-dimensional axisymmetric system, such as a particle in a central force field or confined in a circular region, may show rotational or oscillatory motion. These motions do not require asymmetry of the…
Phoretic mechanisms, whereby gradients of chemical solutes induce surface-driven flows, have recently been used to generate directed propulsion of patterned colloidal particles. When the chemical solutes diffuse slowly, an instability…
Experimental observations indicate that chemically active droplets suspended in a surfactant-laden fluid can self-propel spontaneously. The onset of this motion is attributed to a symmetry-breaking Marangoni instability resulting from the…
Suspended colloidal particles interacting chemically with a solute are able to self-propel by autophoretic motion when they are asymmetrically patterned (Janus colloids). Here we demonstrate that the chemical anisotropy is not a necessary…
Catalytically active particles suspended in a liquid can move due to self-phoresis by generating solute gradients via chemical reactions of the solvent occurring at parts of their surface. Such particles can be used as carriers at the…
For collectively interacting repulsive particles driven on triangular substrates, we show that for certain directions of drive a spontaneous symmetry breaking phenomena occurs where the particles can flow in one of two directions that are…
We demonstrate that a system of self-propelled particles (SPP) exhibits spontaneous symmetry breaking and self-organization in one dimension, in contrast with previous analytical predictions. To explain this surprising result we derive a…
We study the rectified transport of underdamped active noninteracting particles in an asymmetric periodic potential. It is found that the ratchet effect of active noninteracting particles occurs in a single direction (along the easy…
The fabrication of synthetic self-propelled particles and the experimental investigations of their dynamics have stimulated interest in self-generated phoretic effects that propel nano- and micron-scale objects. Theoretical modeling of…
We consider a coarse-grained description of a system of self-propelled particles given by hydrodynamic equations for the density and polarization fields. We find that the ordered moving or flocking state of the system is unstable to spatial…
Self-propelling particles or microswimmers have opened a new field of investigation with both fundamental and practical perspectives. They represent very convenient model objects for experimental studies of active matter, and have…