Related papers: Wall torque controls curvature-driven propulsion i…
We show using theory and experiments that a small particle moving along an elastic membrane through a viscous fluid is repelled from the membrane due to hydro-elastic forces. The viscous stress field produces an elastic disturbance leading…
Systems of active particles are often affected by confinement due to nearby boundaries. Recently, there has been interest in the effect of confinement by complex three dimensional geometries, as might occur in structured environments such…
A pair of Direct Numerical Simulations is used to investigate curvature and pressure effects. One has a Gaussian test bump and a straight opposite wall, while the other has a straight test wall and a blowing/suction distribution on an…
The biological function of membranes is closely related to their softness, which is often studied through the membranes' thermally-driven fluctuations. The analysis commonly assumes that the relaxation rate of a pure bending deformation is…
It is known that obstacles can hydrodynamically trap bacteria and synthetic microswimmers in orbits, where the trapping time heavily depends on the swimmer flow field and noise is needed to escape the trap. Here, we use experiments and…
Eukaryotic swimming cells such as spermatozoa, algae or protozoa use flagella or cilia to move in viscous fluids. The motion of their flexible appendages in the surrounding fluid induces propulsive forces that balance with the viscous drag…
To produce a vortex, a torque must be applied to the fluid. In viscous fluids, the torques that produce turbulent vortices result from the loss of symmetry of the stress tensor, once the viscous friction exceeds the shear stress resistance…
Geometric confinement plays an important role in the dynamics of natural and synthetic microswimmers from bacterial cells to self-propelled particles in high-throughput microfluidic devices. However, little is known about the effects of…
Bacterial processes ranging from gene expression to motility and biofilm formation are constantly challenged by internal and external noise. While the importance of stochastic fluctuations has been appreciated for chemotaxis, it is…
We study the distribution of swimming micro-organisms advected by a model turbulent flow and attracted towards a localised light source through phototaxis. It is shown that particles aggregate along a dynamical attractor with fractal…
Eukaryotic cells and intracellular pathogens such as bacteria or viruses utilize the actin polymerization machinery to propel themselves forward. Thereby, the onset of motion and choice of direction may be the result of a spontaneous…
We study the dynamics of sail membranes during a tacking maneuver, when the sail angle of attack is reversed in order to sail upwind. In successful tacking the sail flips to the mirror-image shape, while in unsuccessful tacking the sail…
A thin-walled tube, e.g., a drinking straw, manifests an instability when bent by localizing the curvature change in a small region. This instability has been extensively studied since the seminal work of Brazier nearly a century ago.…
The dynamics of entrainment of finite-size heavy particles in a turbulent open channel flow over a smooth surface are analyzed. Three types of simulations, namely with freely moving, rotation-constrained, and spanwise-motion-constrained…
Self-sustained turbulent structures have been observed in a wide range of living fluids, yet no quantitative theory exists to explain their properties. We report experiments on active turbulence in highly concentrated 3D suspensions of…
Unlike equilibrium systems, active matter is not governed by the conventional laws of thermodynamics. Through a series of analytic calculations and Langevin dynamics simulations, we explore how systems cross over from equilibrium to active…
Understanding how bacteria move in porous media is critical to applications in healthcare, agriculture, environmental remediation, and chemical sensing. Recent work has demonstrated that E. coli, which moves by run-and-tumble dynamics in a…
The motion of flexible fibers through structured fluidic environments is ubiquitous in nature and industrial applications. Most often, their dynamics results from the complex interplay between internal elastic stresses, contact forces and…
Liquid-liquid phase separation is important across biology, physics, and materials science. Although usually studied at equilibrium, active components - such as motor proteins, enzymes, and synthetic microswimmers - are increasingly…
The physics of micron-scale biological colonies usually benefits from different out-of-equilibrium sources. In bacterial colonies and cellular tissues, the growth process is among the important active sources that determine the dynamics. In…