Related papers: Stability of dancing Volvox
An array of spheres descending slowly through a viscous fluid always clumps [J.M. Crowley, J. Fluid Mech. {\bf 45}, 151 (1971)]. We show that anisotropic particle shape qualitatively transforms this iconic instability of collective…
We study the shear-induced behavior of chiral (circle-swimming) and nonchiral swimmers in a planar channel subjected to Poiseuille (pressure-driven) flow. The swimmers are modeled as active Brownian spheroids, self-propelling with a…
A millimetre-size superhydrophobic sphere impacting on the free surface of a quiescent bath can be propelled back into the air by capillary effects and dynamic fluid forces, whilst transferring part of its energy to the fluid. We report the…
We investigate theoretically the collective dynamics of a suspension of low Reynolds number swimmers that are confined to two dimensions by a thin fluid film. Our model swimmer is characterized by internal degrees of freedom which locally…
In this paper we present a new approach to tidal theory. Assuming a Maxwell viscoelastic rheology, we compute the instantaneous deformation of celestial bodies using a differential equation for the gravity field coefficients. This method…
Many cells exploit the bending or rotation of flagellar filaments in order to self-propel in viscous fluids. While appropriate theoretical modelling is available to capture flagella locomotion in simple, Newtonian fluids, formidable…
Hydrodynamics and confinement dominate bacterial mobility near solid or air-water boundaries, causing flagellated bacteria to move in circular trajectories. This phenomenon results from the counter-rotation between the bacterial body and…
Cellular appendages such as cilia and flagella represent universal tools enabling cells and microbes, among other essential functionalities, to propel themselves in diverse environments. In its planktonic, i.e. freely swimming, state the…
We modify the standard Vicsek model to clearly distinguish between intrinsic noise due to imperfect alignment between organisms, and extrinsic noise due to fluid motion. We then consider the effect of a steady vortical flow, the Taylor…
Flagellated microswimmers B. Subtilis dispersed in a nematic phase of a lyotropic chromonic liquid crystal form a living liquid crystal (LLC). The combination of the passive and active components allows us to analyze how the active…
Eukaryotic flagella are active structures with a complex architecture of microtubules, motor proteins and elastic links. They are capable of whiplike motions driven by motors sliding along filaments that are themselves constrained at an…
It is widely believed that the swimming speed, $v$, of many flagellated bacteria is a non-monotonic function of the concentration, $c$, of high-molecular-weight linear polymers in aqueous solution, showing peaked $v(c)$ curves. Pores in the…
Inspired by small intestine motility, we investigate the flow induced by a propagating pendular-wave along the walls of a channel lined with rigid, villi-like microstructures. The villi undergo harmonic axial oscillations with a phase lag…
Models of active nematics in biological systems normally require complexity arising from the hydrodynamics involved at the microscopic level as well as the viscoelastic nature of the system. Here we show that a minimal, space-independent,…
In a variety of biological situations, swimming cells have to move through complex fluids. Similarly, mucociliary clearance involves the transport of polymeric fluids by beating cilia. Here, we consider the extent to which complex fluids…
The accumulation of swimming bacteria near surfaces may lead to biological processes such as biofilm formation and wound infection. Previous experimental observations of Vibrio alginolyticus showed an interesting correlation between the…
Dynamic organization of the cytoskeletal filaments and rod-like proteins in the cell membrane and other biological interfaces occurs in many cellular processes. Previous modeling studies have considered the dynamics of a single rod on fluid…
Cilia and flagella are hair-like appendages that protrude from the surface of a variety of eukaryotic cells and deform in a wavelike fashion to transport fluids and propel cells. Motivated by the ubiquity of non-Newtonian fluids in biology,…
Microswimmers often use chirality to generate translational movement from rotation motion, exhibiting distinct behaviors in complex fluids compared to simple Newtonian fluids. However, the underlying mechanism remains incompletely…
The velocity fluctuations in a spherical shell arising from sinusoidal perturbations of a Keplerian shear flow with a free amplitude parameter \epsilon are studied numerically by means of fully 3D nonlinear simulations. The investigations…