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Updated: Jul 19, 2026

Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
Sudden breakdown in linear response of a rotationally driven magnetic microparticle and application to physical and
Brandon H McNaughton1, Karen A Kehbein, Jeffrey N Anker
1Applied Physics Program, 2477 Randall Laboratory, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109-1120, USA.
Abstract:
In this work, sensing magnetic microparticles were used to probe both the local pH and the viscosity-dependent nonlinear rotational behavior of the particles. The latter resulted from a critical transition marking a driven particle's crossover from phase-locking to phase-slipping with an externally rotating magnetic field, i.e., a sudden breakdown in its linear response that can be used to measure a variety of physical quantities. The transition from simple rotation to wobbling is described both theoretically and experimentally. The ability to measure both chemical and physical properties of a system could enable simultaneous monitoring of chemical and physical interactions in biological or other complex fluid microsystems.
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