English

Influence of thermal fluctuations on active diffusion at large P\'{e}clet numbers

Soft Condensed Matter 2021-07-23 v1 Biological Physics

Abstract

Wavelet Monte Carlo dynamics simulations are used to study the dynamics of passive particles in the presence of microswimmers, taking account of the often-omitted thermal motion alongside the hydrodynamic flows generated by the swimmers. Although the P\'{e}clet numbers considered are large, we find the thermal motion to have a significant effect on the dynamics of our passive particles, and can be included as a decorrelation factor in the velocity autocorrelation with a decay time proportional to the P\'{e}clet number. Similar decorrelation factors come from swimmer rotations, e.g.~run and tumble motion, and apply to both entrainment and far field loop contributions. These decorrelation factors lead to active diffusivity having a weak apparent power law close to Pe0.2Pe^{0.2} for small tracer-like particles at P\'{e}clet numbers appropriate for E. coli swimmers at room temperature. Meanwhile, the reduced hydrodynamic response of large particles to nearby forces has a corresponding reduction in active diffusivity in that regime. Together, they lead to a non-monotonic dependence of active diffusivity on particle size that can shed light on similar behaviour observed in experiments by Patteson et al.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2103.09581,
  title  = {Influence of thermal fluctuations on active diffusion at large P\'{e}clet numbers},
  author = {Oliver T. Dyer and Robin C. Ball},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2103.09581},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

33 pages, 8 figures. The following article has been submitted to the journal: Physics of Fluids. If/after it is published, it will be found at https://aip.scitation.org/journal/phf

R2 v1 2026-06-24T00:16:13.911Z