BPCPPDYSOE21 – scientific programme

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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 41: Active Matter 4 - organized by Carsten Beta (Potsdam), Andreas Menzel (Magdeburg) and Holger Stark (Berlin) (joint session DY/BP)

DY 41.5: Talk

Wednesday, March 24, 2021, 12:20–12:40, DYb

Rheotaxis of active droplets in confinements — •Ranabir Dey^1,2, Carola M. Buness^1,3, Babak Vajdi Hokmabad¹, Chenyu Jin^1,4, and Corinna C. Maass^1,3,5 — ¹Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, Germany — ²Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad, India — ³Georg August Universitat Goettingen — ⁴University of Bayreuth, Germany — ⁵University of Twente, the Netherlands

Biological microswimmers commonly navigate confined spaces having liquid flows, e.g. locomotions of spermatozoa through the reproductive tract and bacteria in the gut. The directed motion of the microorganisms in response to the external velocity gradients is classically referred to as `rheotaxis'. Over the last few years, rigorous efforts have been made to understand the rheotaxis of microorganims, specifically bacteria. In contrast, there is very little quantitative understanding of rheotaxis of artificial microswimmers. It must be noted that artificial microswimmers, e.g. those designed for cargo delivery, are often required to navigate confinements having external flows. Here, we elucidate the swimming dynamics of a common type of artificial microswimmer, i.e. active droplets, in micro-confinements having Poiseuille flow. We experimentally quantify the the swimming characteristics of these droplet microswimmers in response to velocity gradients of varying strength. We also try to understand the observed rheotaxis in confinements by considering the long range hydrodynamic interactions with the confining walls.