Pith. sign in

REVIEW

Not yet reviewed by Pith; the record is open.

This paper has not been read by Pith yet. Machine review is queued; the pith claim, tier, and objections will appear here once it completes.

SPECIMEN: schema-true, not a live event

T0 review · schema-true

One-sentence machine reading of the paper's core claim.

pith:XXXXXXXX · record.json · timestamp

arxiv 1911.01881 v2 pith:4UECMFTR submitted 2019-11-04 physics.flu-dyn

Microswimmers in an axisymmetric vortex flow

classification physics.flu-dyn
keywords microswimmersdynamicsshapevortexfindflowmotilityaxisymmetric
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal T4 reserved
0 comments
read the original abstract

Microswimmers are encountered in a wide variety of biophysical settings. When interacting with flow fields, they show interesting dynamical features such as trapping, clustering, and preferential orientation. One important step towards the understanding of such features is to clarify the interplay of hydrodynamic flows with microswimmer motility and shape. Here, we study the dynamics of ellipsoidal microswimmers in a two-dimensional axisymmetric vortex flow. Despite this simple setting, we find surprisingly rich dynamics, which can be comprehensively characterized in the framework of dynamical systems theory. By classifying the fixed-point structure of the underlying phase space as a function of motility and microswimmer shape, we uncover the topology of the phase space and determine the conditions under which microswimmers are trapped in the vortex. For spherical microswimmers, we identify Hamiltonian dynamics, which are broken for microswimmers of a different shape. We find that prolate ellipsoidal microswimmers tend to align parallel to the velocity field, while oblate microswimmers tend to remain perpendicular to it. Additionally, we find that rotational noise allows microswimmers to escape the vortex with an enhanced escape rate close to the system's saddle point. Our results clarify the role of shape and motility on the occurrence of preferential concentration and clustering and provide a starting point to understand the dynamics in more complex flows.

discussion (0)

Sign in with ORCID, Apple, or X to comment. Anyone can read and Pith papers without signing in.