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Updated: Sep 30, 2025
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Chemotactic Response of Marine Micro-Organisms to Micro-Scale Nutrient Layers
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Hydrodynamics of chiral squirmers
P S Burada1, R Maity1, F Jülicher2
1Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur, Kharagpur 721302, India.
Physical Review. E
|March 16, 2022
Summary
Two chiral swimmers exhibit complex interactions, forming bound states and orbiting trajectories due to their unique helical swimming and flow patterns. This research sheds light on collective microorganism movement.
Area of Science:
- Fluid dynamics
- Microbiology
- Biophysics
Background:
- Microorganisms often exhibit chiral (handed) swimming behaviors in fluids.
- The standard squirmer model describes axisymmetric slip velocity, but lacks chiral asymmetry.
- Chiral swimmers possess surface slip asymmetries, leading to complex motion and flow patterns.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the hydrodynamics and collective behavior of two interacting chiral swimmers.
- To analyze the influence of chiral asymmetries on swimming trajectories and fluid flow.
- To identify emergent phenomena like attraction, repulsion, and bounded states in interacting chiral swimmers.
Main Methods:
- Utilizing the established squirmer model, modified to incorporate chiral asymmetries.
- Simulating the hydrodynamic interactions between a pair of chiral squirmers.
- Analyzing the resulting swimming trajectories and flow field characteristics.
Main Results:
- Chiral swimmers exhibit helical trajectories and generate chiral flow patterns.
- Hydrodynamic interactions between two chiral swimmers can result in attraction or repulsion.
- Periodic orbiting and bounded states were observed, indicative of chiral swimmer interactions.
Conclusions:
- The chiral nature of swimmers is crucial for emergent collective behaviors like bounded states.
- This study provides insights into the complex dynamics of interacting chiral microorganisms.
- Findings are relevant for understanding the collective movements of ciliated microorganisms.
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