Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 29: Poster: Active Fluids

CPP 29.3: Poster

Wednesday, March 24, 2010, 17:30–19:00, Poster C

Clockwise-directional circle swimmer moves counter-clockwise in Petri dish- and ring-like confinements — Sven van Teeffelen, •Urs Zimmermann, and Hartmut Löwen — Institut für Theoretische Physik II: Weiche Materie, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, D-40225 Düsseldorf, Germany

We consider a self-propelled rod driven by a constant internal force and torque that leads to circular motion in two spatial dimensions and therefore is referred to as a circle swimmer with a characteristic radius given by the torque-to-force ratio. The Brownian dynamics of a circle swimmer in confining Petri dish- or ring-shaped geometry are studied with respect to the mean of the swimmer's position, its steady-state properties and its orientational motion by analytical and computational means. For small torque-to-force ratios, the confinement inverts the orientational sense of the motion: a clockwise-directional circle swimmer moves counter-clockwise in the confinement. Examples for our model include self-propelled colloidal rods, vibrated granular rods and motile bacteria in cylindrical confinements.