Condensed Matter Theory

Abstract:

We describe in detail the hydrodynamics of a simple model of linked sphere swimmers. We calculate the asymptotic form of both the time averaged flow field generated by a single swimmer and the interactions between swimmers in a dilute suspension, showing how each depends on the parameters describing the swimmer and its swimming stroke. We emphasize the importance of time reversal symmetry in determining the far field flow around a swimmer and show that the interactions between swimmers are highly dependent on the relative phase of their swimming strokes.

Abstract:

As technological advances allow us to fabricate smaller autonomous self-propelled devices, it is clear that at some point directed propulsion could not come from pre-specified deterministic periodic deformation of the swimmer's body and we need to develop strategies for extracting a net directed motion from a series of random transitions in the conformation space of the swimmer. We present a theoretical formulation for describing the 'stochastic motor' that drives the motion of low Reynolds number swimmers based on this concept, and use it to study the propulsion of a simple low Reynolds number swimmer, namely, the three-sphere swimmer model. When the detailed balanced is broken and the motor is driven out of equilibrium, it can propel the swimmer in the required direction. The formulation can be used to study optimal design strategies for molecular scale low Reynolds number swimmers.

Abstract:

The stochastic dynamics of colloidal particles with surface activity-in the form of catalytic reaction or particle release-and self-phoretic effects are studied analytically. Three different time scales corresponding to inertial effects, solute redistribution, and rotational diffusion are identified and shown to lead to a plethora of different regimes involving inertial, propulsive, anomalous, and diffusive behaviors. For symmetric active colloids, a regime is found where the mean-squared displacement has a superdiffusive t;{3/2} behavior. At the longest time scales, an effective diffusion coefficient is found which has a nonmonotonic dependence on the size of the colloid.