Dresden 2017 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 52: Chimera states: symmetry-breaking in dynamical networks (joint session DY/BP/SOE)

DY 52.1: Talk

Thursday, March 23, 2017, 16:30–16:45, ZEU 147

The emergence of chimera states in arrays of cilia — •Thomas Niedermayer and Markus Bär — Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin

Systems of non-locally coupled, identical phase oscillators exhibit the coexistence of coherent and incoherent regions. These intriguing dynamical states, termed chimeras, have been studied theoretically in recent years and their emergence is hypothesized for instance in uni-hemispheric sleep and ventricular fibrillation. However, observations directly linked to theory were only made in engineered systems.

We have reconsidered our previously published phase oscillator model for hydrodynamic interactions of flagella and cilia, thread-like projections of eukaryotic cells. This simple, yet realistic, minimal model gives rise to the well-established phenomenon of metachronal waves. Here, we show that it additionally comprises all necessary and sufficient conditions for the emergence of chimera states. In particular, the flexibility of cilia might function as a lever between synchronous and asynchronous dynamics, that is a switch between two qualitatively different motility states. Our theoretical predictions provide a testable hypothesis in experimental and computational studies of large cilia arrays.