Diffusion of Ellipsoids in Bacterial Suspensions

Condensed Matter journal club

Diffusion of Ellipsoids in Bacterial Suspensions

  • Event time: 11:30am
  • Event date: 29th April 2016
  • Speaker: Nick Koumakis (Formerly School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Edinburgh)
  • Location: Room 2511,

Event details

Abstract

Active fluids such as swarming bacteria and motile colloids exhibit exotic properties different from conventional equilibrium materials. As a peculiar example, a spherical tracer immersed inside active fluids shows an enhanced translational diffusion, orders of magnitude stronger than its intrinsic Brownian motion. Here, rather than spherical tracers, we investigate the diffusion of isolated ellipsoids in a quasi-twodimensional bacterial bath. Our study shows a nonlinear enhancement of both translational and rotational diffusions of ellipsoids. More importantly, we uncover an anomalous coupling between particles' translation and rotation that is strictly prohibited in Brownian diffusion. The coupling reveals a counterintuitive anisotropic particle diffusion, where an ellipsoid diffuses fastest along its minor axis in its body frame. Combining experiments with theoretical modeling, we show that such an anomalous diffusive behavior arises from the generic straining flow of swimming bacteria. Our work illustrates an unexpected feature of active fluids and deepens our understanding of transport processes in microbiological systems.
PRL 116 article 068303 (2016)
pdf version

Authors

Yi Peng, Lipeng Lai, Yi-Shu Tai, Kechun Zhang, Xinliang Xu, Xiang Cheng

About Condensed Matter journal club

Given the diversity of research in the CM group, chosen topics vary widely. We tend to stick to high-impact journals - Nature, Science, PNAS and PRL have been popular - but this is not prescriptive..

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