Holger Stark : Active motion: Understanding the nonequilibrium (Sep 10, 2013 2:45 PM)

Active motion of microorganisms or artificial microswimmers in a fluid at low Reynolds number is an appealing subject which has attracted much attention recently. Since these swimmers move constantly in nonequilibrium, they give rise to novel phenomena which, in particular, occur when external fields are applied or when they move collectively.

The talk reviews three situations where active motion manifests itself. First, a swimmer under Poiseuille flow shows nonlinear dynamics reminiscent of the nonlinear pendulum. Bounding walls introduce "dissipation" [1] and an elliptical crosssection of the microchannel leads to chaotic motion. Secondly, I discuss the collective motion of model swimmers, so-called squirmers, in a quasi 2D geometry by means of multi-particle collision dynamics. This is a particle based method to solve the Navier-Stokes equations and helps to elucidate the role of hydrodynamics in collective phenomena. Indeed, we find gas-like and cluster phases as well as phase separation which is strongly influenced by hydrodynamic near-field interactions and the swimmer type. Thirdly, I discuss dynamic clustering of active or self-propelling colloids that interact by diffusiophoresis reminiscent of chemotaxis in bacterial systems.

[1] A. Zoettl and H. Stark, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 218104 (2012).

• Category: Nonlinear and Complex Systems
• Duration: 01:39:57
• Date:  September 10, 2013 at 2:45 PM
• Views: 168
• Tags:   seminar, CNCS Seminar