Related papers: Flagellated bacterial motility in polymer solution…
When subjected to sufficiently strong velocity gradients, solutions of long, flexible polymers exhibit flow instabilities and chaotic motion, often referred to as elastic turbulence. Its mechanism differs from the familiar, inertia-driven…
Flagellated bacteria are hydrodynamically attracted to rigid walls, yet past work shows a 'hovering' state where they swim stably at a finite height above surfaces. We use numerics and theory to reveal the physical origin of hovering.…
We investigate configuration dynamics of a flexible polymer chain in a bath of active particles with dynamic chirality, i.e., particles rotate with a deterministic angular velocity $\omega$ besides self-propulsion,by Langevin dynamics…
We systematically investigate how flagellar morphology governs the stability of bacterial Brownian motion, evaluating the effectiveness of a simplified chiral two-body model. This model, which effectively captures the specific bacterial…
In a fluid environment, flagellated microswimmers propel themselves by rotating their flagella. The morphology of these flagella significantly influences forward speed, swimming efficiency, and directional stability, which are critical for…
Solutions of long, flexible polymer molecules are complex fluids that simultaneously exhibit fluid-like and solid-like behaviour. When subjected to external flows, dilute polymer solutions develop elastic turbulence - a unique chaotic flow…
Active turbulence, or chaotic self-organized collective motion, is often observed in concentrated suspensions of motile bacteria and other systems of self-propelled interacting agents. To date, there is no fundamental understanding of how…
The imbalance of normal stress around a particle induces its transverse migration in pressure-driven viscoelastic flow, offering possibilities for particle manipulation in microfluidic devices. Theoretical predictions align with…
Flagellated bacteria exploiting helical propulsion are known to swim along circular trajectories near surfaces. Fluid dynamics predicts this circular motion to be clockwise (CW) above a rigid surface (when viewed from inside the fluid) and…
Hypothesis: Bacterial contamination of surfaces poses a major threat to public health. Designing effective antibacterial or self-cleaning surfaces requires understanding how bacteria-laden droplets interact with solid substrates and how…
We experimentally study the motion of light-activated colloidal microswimmers in a viscoelastic fluid. We find that, in such a non-Newtonian environment, the active colloids undergo an unexpected transition from enhanced angular diffusion…
We show, using differential dynamic microscopy, that the diffusivity of non-motile cells in a three-dimensional (3D) population of motile E. coli is enhanced by an amount proportional to the active cell flux. While non-motile mutants…
To mimic the motion of biological swimmers in bodily fluids, a novel experimental system of micellar solubilization driven active droplets in a visco-elastic polymeric solution is presented. The visco-elastic nature of the medium,…
We use active microrheology to determine the frequency dependent moduli of a linear viscoelastic fluid in terms of the polymer time constant ($\lambda$), and the polymer ($\mu_p$) and solvent viscosity ($\mu_s$), respectively. We measure…
Cilia and flagella are actively bending slender organelles, performing functions such as motility, feeding and embryonic symmetry breaking. We review the mechanics of viscous-dominated microscale flow, including time-reversal symmetry, drag…
The motion of a freely rotating prolate spheroid in a simple shear flow of a dilute polymeric solution is examined in the limit of large particle aspect ratio, $\kappa$. A regular perturbation expansion in the polymer concentration, $c$, a…
The experimental literature on the motion of mesoscopic probe particles through polymer solutions is systematically reviewed. The primary focus is the study of diffusive motion of small probe particles. Comparison is made with measurements…
Cell motility underlies many biological processes, including cancer metastasis, bacterial infection, and evolutionary adaptation. We introduce a non-equilibrium single-cell motility model inspired by the generalized Langevin equation, which…
The locomotion of microorganisms and spermatozoa in complex viscoelastic fluids is of critical importance in many biological processes such as fertilization, infection, and biofilm formation. Depending on their propulsion mechanisms,…
Cells swimming in confined environments are attracted by surfaces. We measure the steady-state distribution of smooth-swimming bacteria (Escherichia coli) between two glass plates. In agreement with earlier studies, we find a strong…