Issue 22, 2009

Clockwise-directional circle swimmer moves counter-clockwise in Petri dish- and ring-like confinements

Abstract

A self-propelled rod which is driven by a constant internal force and torque performs circular motion in two spatial dimensions with an “internal” radius governed by the torque-to-force ratio and is referred to as a circle swimmer. Using analytical methods and computer simulations, we study the Brownian dynamics of a circle swimmer in a confining Petri dish- or ring-shaped geometry and compute the mean of the swimmer's position, its steady-state properties and its orientational motion. For small torque-to-force ratios, the confinement inverts the orientational sense of the motion: a clockwise-directional circle swimmer moves counter-clockwise in the confinement. Our results are verifiable for self-propelled colloidal rods, for vibrated granular rods and for motile bacteria in cylindrical confinements.

Graphical abstract: Clockwise-directional circle swimmer moves counter-clockwise in Petri dish- and ring-like confinements

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
10 Jun 2009
Accepted
04 Sep 2009
First published
25 Sep 2009

Soft Matter, 2009,5, 4510-4519

Clockwise-directional circle swimmer moves counter-clockwise in Petri dish- and ring-like confinements

S. van Teeffelen, U. Zimmermann and H. Löwen, Soft Matter, 2009, 5, 4510 DOI: 10.1039/B911365G

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