Berlin 2018 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help

DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 67: Poster: Active Matter, Microswimmers

DY 67.3: Poster

Thursday, March 15, 2018, 15:30–18:00, Poster A

Probability fluxes for self-propelled particles in strong confinement — •Jan Cammann, Fabian Jan Schwarzendahl, Tanya Ostapenko, Oliver Bäumchen, and Marco G. Mazza — Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Göttingen, Germany

Active Brownian particles, such as bacteria and motile algae frequently encounter boundaries in their natural habitats. Experimental observations suggest that a wide range of microswimmers seem to spend a significant amount of time close to such boundaries as opposed to staying in the bulk. Experiments on individual cells of the model organism Chlamydomonas reinhardtii in strong confinement show that the probability to find the algae near a boundary is increased with curvature. Additionally local gradients in boundary curvature result in probability fluxes not only bound to the wall, but forming loops that can reach into the bulk and have significant influence on the global behaviour. By describing the particles shape as an asymmetric dumbbell with steric wall interactions, we show that confined active Brownian particle simulations can reproduce the experimental results. This minimal model is capable of reproducing the probability distribution in positional space, as well as the fluxes in probability found in experiments with very good agreement.