Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 15: Statistical Physics far from equilibrium

DY 15.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 28, 2012, 10:45–11:00, MA 004

How to capture self-propelled particles — •Andreas Kaiser, Henricus H. Wensink, and Hartmut Löwen — Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf

For many applications, it is important to catch collections of autonomously navigating microbes and man-made microswimmers in a controlled way. Here we design an efficient trap to capture rod-like elf-propelled particles collectively. By computer simulations in two dimensions, a V-shape is found to be the optimal boundary for a trapping device. The efficiency of catching can be largely tuned by the opening angle α of the trap. For increasing α, there is a sequence of three emergent states corresponding to partial, complete, and no trapping.