Dresden 2017 – scientific programme
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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik
DY 45: Microswimmers (joint session BP/DY)
DY 45.2: Talk
Thursday, March 23, 2017, 11:30–11:45, ZEU 250
Chemotaxis in external fields: magnetotactic bacteria behavior — •Agnese Codutti1, Stefan Klumpp2, and Damien Faivre1 — 1Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces, Research Campus Golm, 14476 Potsdam, Germany — 2Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Friedrich-Hund-Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
Microswimmers such as bacteria, algae and artificial swimmers can be described with a three dimensional active brownian particle model. Here, we modify this simple model to better describe bacterial motility. First of all, different states of motion are included: the bacteria can run straight or actively change direction of motion through tumble or reverse. Second, chemotaxis is added to generate a bias towards the preferred concentration of some substance. Finally, the swimmer may be subject to external forces and torques. We show how this modified model can be applied to various scenarios, including the run and tumble chemotactic motion of E. Coli and the motion of magnetotactic bacteria in a magnetic field. Magnetotactic bacteria produce an intracellular chain of magnetic nanoparticles that acts like a compass and passively orients the bacterium in the external magnetic field of the earth. The orientation provides an advantage to the bacteria, since it improves chemotaxis. Therefore we explore the interaction between chemotaxis and an external magnetic field. We show that reversing is more advantageous then tumbling, when a magnetic torque is included.