Related papers: Rheotaxis of Active Droplets
Recent mathematical fluid dynamics models have shed light into an outstanding problem in reproductive biology: why do spermatozoa cells show a 'preference' for swimming near to surfaces? In this paper we review quantitative approaches to…
Active particles (living or synthetic) often move through inhomogeneous environments, such as gradients in light, heat or nutrient concentration, that can lead to directed motion (or taxis). Recent research has explored inhomogeneity in the…
We investigate the effect of cooperative interactions in an ensemble of microorganisms, modelled as self-propelled disk-like and rod-like particles, in a three-dimensional turbulent flow to show flocking as an emergent phenomenon. Building…
The breakup of a fluid jet into droplets has long fascinated natural scientists, with early research dating back to the 19th century. Infinitesimal perturbations to a jet grow because of surface tension, which eventually leads to breakup of…
Cell monolayers are a central model system to tissue biophysics. In vivo, epithelial tissues are curved on the scale of microns, and curvature's role in the onset of spontaneous tissue flows is still not well-understood. Here, we present a…
Organisms often swim through fluids that are spatially inhomogeneous. If the fluids are polymeric, gradients in polymer concentration may lead to gradients in both fluid viscosity and elasticity. In this letter, we present theoretical…
Complex interactions between cellular systems and their surrounding extracellular matrices are emerging as important mechanical regulators of cell functions such as proliferation, motility, and cell death, and such cellular systems are…
We introduce a droplet-jumping phenomenon on a superhydrophobic surface driven by the resonant AC electrowetting. The resonant electrical actuation enables a droplet to accumulate sufficient surface energy for jumping, and superhydrophobic…
Non-equilibrium dynamics of topological defects can be used as a fundamental propulsion mechanism in microscopic active matter. Here, we demonstrate swimming of topological defect-propelled colloidal particles in (passive) nematic fluids…
When treated with antibiotics below the minimum inhibitory concentration, bacterial cell division turns off, but cell growth does not. Thus, rod-like bacteria, including E. coli, can elongate many times their length without increasing their…
Droplets are essential for spatially controlling biomolecules in cells. To work properly, cells need to control the emergence and morphology of droplets. On the one hand, driven chemical reactions can affect droplets profoundly. For…
We numerically investigate the steady shear rheology of mixtures of active and passive Brownian particles, with varying fractions of active components. We find that even a small fraction of active dopants triggers fluidization with…
There is a recent surge of interest in the behavior of active particles that can at the same time align their direction of movement and synchronize their oscillations, known as swarmalators. While theoretical and numerical models of such…
The nature of emergent collective behaviors of moving physical agents interacting with their neighborhood is a long-standing open issue in physical and biological systems alike. This calls for studies on the control of synchronization and…
We report an experimental investigation of the spontaneous motion of liquid droplets on soft gels with a crosslinking gradient. By systematically adjusting the spatial difference in crosslinking density, we observed that millimeter-sized…
We demonstrate spontaneous bidirectional motion of droplets on liquid infused surfaces in the presence of a topographical gradient, in which the droplets can move either toward the denser or the sparser solid fraction area. Our analytical…
We present a quantitative analysis on the response of a dilute active suspension of self-propelled rods (swimmers) in a planar channel subjected to an imposed shear flow. To best capture the salient features of shear-induced effects, we…
This study investigates the oscillation behavior of a sessile drop placed on a hydrophobic substrate subjected to vertical vibrations with varying frequencies and amplitudes. We examined the responses of both Newtonian and viscoelastic…
Deformed droplets are ubiquitous in various industrial applications, such as inkjet printing, lab-on-a-chip devices, and spray cooling, and can fundamentally affect the involved applications both favorably and unfavorably. Here, we employ…
In a recent letter [1], Zaitsev et al. report observations of evaporating water micro-droplets over a heated solid substrate and suggest a model for the mechanisms of both droplet levitation and inter-droplet interaction. According to their…