Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 7: Posters: Biological Machines, Motor Proteins

BP 7.1: Poster

Monday, March 22, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1

Modeling on the hydrodynamic interaction between micro-swimmers — •Johannes Greber and Rudolf Friedrich — Institut für Theoretische Physik, WWU Münster, Willhelm-Klemm-Str. 9, 48149 Münster

We are interested in swimming bacteria consisting of a head and a couple of flagella. Generally it shows two states of motion: On the one hand by bundling the counterclockwise rotating flagella the bacterium translates. On the other hand the bacterium tumbles or rotates, when one flagellum rotates clockwise. Using the velocity field created in the surrounding fluid by these movements bacteria can interact with each other, which leads to the question, if there are collective effects among several bacteria.

Assuming that the velocity field of one bacterium consists of two rigidly coupled point vortices in some given distance, we derive the equations of motion for the case of interaction between two swimming objects. Moreover, we make some predictions for the trajectories of the swimmers with the help of a linear stability analysis.