Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 4: Active Matter DY I (joint session DY/CPP/BP)

BP 4.1: Talk

Monday, March 12, 2018, 10:00–10:15, BH-N 243

Dynamics of sedimenting active particles — •Jérémy Vachier and Marco G. Mazza — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany

The collective motion of active particles has attracted enormous interest on account of the technological applications of artificial and biological particles. Even in the simple case of a dilute suspension solely subject to gravity, active particles show interesting behavior. While theoretical studies have addressed this problem with effective theories, a full time-dependent solution of the sedimentation problem has been neglected. Here, we present an analytical solution of the Fokker--Planck equation for the stochastic process which allows us to describe the full dynamics of active particles in three dimensions under an external force. Our results are supported by numerical calculations in which weak hydrodynamics interactions are approximated. We address three cases: active particle under gravity, confinement by reflecting barriers, and the effect of the activity of the particles on their collective motion. Finally, we compare our results with experiments and find a very good agreement.