No Arabic abstract
For many applications, it is important to catch collections of autonomously navigating microbes and man-made microswimmers in a controlled way. Here we propose an efficient trap to collectively capture self-propelled colloidal rods. By means of computer simulation in two dimensions, we show that a static chevron-shaped wall represents an optimal boundary for a trapping device. Its catching efficiency can be tuned by varying the opening angle of the trap. For increasing angles, there is a sequence of three emergent states corresponding to partial, complete, and no trapping. A trapping `phase diagram maps out the trap conditions under which the capture of self-propelled particles at a given density is rendered optimal.
Frictional forces affect the rheology of hard-sphere colloids, at high shear rate. Here we demonstrate, via numerical simulations, that they also affect the dynamics of active Brownian particles, and their motility induced phase separation. Frictional forces increase the angular diffusivity of the particles, in the dilute phase, and prevent colliding particles from resolving their collision by sliding one past to the other. This leads to qualitatively changes of motility-induced phase diagram in the volume-fraction motility plane. While frictionless systems become unstable towards phase separation as the motility increases only if their volume fraction overcomes a threshold, frictional system become unstable regardless of their volume fraction. These results suggest the possibility of controlling the motility induced phase diagram by tuning the roughness of the particles.
Recent experimental studies have demonstrated that cellular motion can be directed by topographical gradients, such as those resulting from spatial variations in the features of a micropatterned substrate. This phenomenon, known as topotaxis, is especially prominent among cells persistently crawling within a spatially varying distribution of cell-sized obstacles. In this article we introduce a toy model of topotaxis based on active Brownian particles constrained to move in a lattice of obstacles, with space-dependent lattice spacing. Using numerical simulations and analytical arguments, we demonstrate that topographical gradients introduce a spatial modulation of the particles persistence, leading to directed motion toward regions of higher persistence. Our results demonstrate that persistent motion alone is sufficient to drive topotaxis and could serve as a starting point for more detailed studies on self-propelled particles and cells.
Recent studies have highlighted the sensitivity of active matter to boundaries and their geometries. Here we develop a general theory for the dynamics and statistics of active particles on curved surfaces and illustrate it on two examples. We first show that active particles moving on a surface with no ability to probe its curvature only exhibit steady-state inhomogeneities in the presence of orientational order. We then consider a strongly confined 3D ideal active gas and compute its steady-state density distribution in a box of arbitrary convex shape.
The study of cells dynamical properties is essential to a better understanding of several physiological processes. These properties are directly associated with cells mechanical parameters experimentally achieved through physical stress. The micropipette aspiration essay has proven an accurate and controllable tool to apply physical stress to the cell. In this work, we explore the numerical modeling of two-dimensional cells using an active multi-particle ring submitted to micropipette aspiration. We correlate simulation parameters with experimental data and obtain a complete map of the input parameters and the resulting elastic parameters that could be measured in experiments.
In a theoretical and simulation study, active Brownian particles (ABPs) in three-dimensional bulk systems are exposed to time-varying sinusoidal activity waves that are running through the system. A linear response (Green-Kubo) formalism is applied to derive fully analytical expressions for the torque-free polarization profiles of the particles. The activity waves induce fluxes that strongly depend on the particle size and may be employed to de-mix mixtures of ABPs or to drive the particles into selected areas of the system. Three-dimensional Langevin dynamics simulations are carried out to verify the accuracy of the linear response formalism, which is shown to work best when the particles are small (i.e., highly Brownian) or operating at low activity levels.