Diffusion of self-propelled particles in complex media
Name
PhysRevFluids.3.083301.pdf
Size
1.24 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
94b617a36dc3af61c40cf9a564c12b8e
Author(s)
Yazdi, Shahrzad
Aragones Gomez, Juan Luis
Alexander-Katz, Alfredo
Date Issued
August 2018
Journal
Physical Review Fluids
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Aragones, Juan L. et al. "Diffusion of self-propelled particles in complex media." Physical Review Fluids 3, 8 (August 2018): 083301 © 2018 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The diffusion of active microscopic organisms in complex environments plays an important role in a wide range of biological phenomena from cell colony growth to single organism transport. Here, we investigate theoretically and computationally the diffusion of a self-propelled particle (the organism) embedded in a complex medium composed of a collection of nonmotile solid particles that mimic soil or other cells. Under such conditions we find that the rotational relaxation time of the swimming direction depends on the swimming velocity and is drastically reduced compared to a pure Newtonian fluid. This leads to a dramatic increase (of several orders of magnitude) in the effective rotational diffusion coefficient of the self-propelled particles, which can lead to “self-trapping” of the active particles in such complex media. An analytical model is put forward that quantitatively captures the computational results. Our work sheds light on the role that the environment plays in the behavior of active systems and can be generalized in a straightforward fashion to understand other synthetic and biological active systems in heterogenous environments.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.083301
