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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 14: Active Matter II (joint session DY/BP/CPP)

CPP 14.5: Vortrag

Montag, 27. März 2023, 16:00–16:15, ZEU 160

Inverted Sedimentation of Active Particles in Unbiased ac Fields — •José Carlos Ureña Marcos and Benno Liebchen — Institut für Physik Kondensierter Materie, TU Darmstadt, Darmstadt, Germany

Biological microswimmers can steer autonomously and use this ability to perform sophisticated tasks. Synthetic microswimmers do not yet reach the same degree of autonomy, and need to be controlled externally if they are to carry out tasks such as targeted cargo delivery or microsurgery. While much progress has been made recently to control their motion based on external forces or gradients, e.g. in light intensity, which have a well-defined direction or bias, little is known about how to steer APs in situations where no permanent bias can be realized.

Here, we show that ac fields with a vanishing time average provide an alternative route to steering APs. We exemplify this route for inertial APs in a gravitational field, observing that a substantial fraction of them persistently travels in the upward direction upon switching on the ac field, resulting in an inverted sedimentation profile at the top wall of a confining container. Our results offer a generic control principle which could be used in the future to steer active motion, to direct collective behaviors and to purify mixtures.