Regensburg 2019 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 33: Statistical physics of biological systems I (joint session BP/DY)

DY 33.4: Invited Talk

Wednesday, April 3, 2019, 15:45–16:15, H4

Chaos in self-propelled droplets — •Annette Zippelius and Reiner Kree — Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Institut für Theoretische Physik, Friedrich-Hund Platz 1, 37077 Göttingen

Intracellular flow can be generated by a variety of active mechanisms, such as motors transporting cargo. The actively generated flow has at least two effects: it can drive cell locomotion and simultaneously play a central role for intracellular transport. We develop increasingly more complex, but analytically solvable models, starting from a simple fluid droplet or a biphasic droplet, consisting of a fluid and a rigid gel. Active forces or stresses, which are co-localised on the gel, generate internal flow. The trajectories of tracer particles which are advected by the internal flow, are shown to display the full richness of dynamical systems, ranging from closed orbits to quasiperiodic motion and chaotic trajectories in general. We discuss the mixing properties of the internal flow as well as its significance in comparison to diffusive transport. Despite chaos inside the droplet, locomotion of the droplet as a whole remains simple and regular, e.g. motion on a straight line or a spiral.