Description: Physics of microswimmers - single particle motion and collective behavior: a review

This title appears in the Scientific Report : 2015

Physics of microswimmers - single particle motion and collective behavior: a review

Locomotion and transport of microorganisms in fluids is an essential aspect of life. Search for food, orientation toward light, spreading of off-spring, and the formation of colonies are only possible due to locomotion. Swimming at the microscale occurs at low Reynolds numbers, where fluid friction...

Personal Name(s):	Elgeti, Jens
	Winkler, Roland G. / Gompper, Gerhard (Corresponding Author)
Contributing Institute:	Theorie der Weichen Materie und Biophysik; IAS-2 Theorie der Weichen Materie und Biophysik; ICS-2
Published in:	Reports on progress in physics, 78 (2015) 5, S. 056601
Imprint:	Bristol IOP Publ. 2015
PubMed ID:	25919479
DOI:	10.1088/0034-4885/78/5/056601
Document Type:	Journal Article
Research Program:	Physical Basis of Diseases
Link:	Restricted OpenAccess Restricted OpenAccess
	Publikationsportal JuSER

Please use the identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/2128/22829 in citations.
Please use the identifier: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0034-4885/78/5/056601 in citations.

Locomotion and transport of microorganisms in fluids is an essential aspect of life. Search for food, orientation toward light, spreading of off-spring, and the formation of colonies are only possible due to locomotion. Swimming at the microscale occurs at low Reynolds numbers, where fluid friction and viscosity dominates over inertia. Here, evolution achieved propulsion mechanisms, which overcome and even exploit drag. Prominent propulsion mechanisms are rotating helical flagella, exploited by many bacteria, and snake-like or whip-like motion of eukaryotic flagella, utilized by sperm and algae. For artificial microswimmers, alternative concepts to convert chemical energy or heat into directed motion can be employed, which are potentially more efficient. The dynamics of microswimmers comprises many facets, which are all required to achieve locomotion. In this article, we review the physics of locomotion of biological and synthetic microswimmers, and the collective behavior of their assemblies. Starting from individual microswimmers, we describe the various propulsion mechanism of biological and synthetic systems and address the hydrodynamic aspects of swimming. This comprises synchronization and the concerted beating of flagella and cilia. In addition, the swimming behavior next to surfaces is examined. Finally, collective and cooperate phenomena of various types of isotropic and anisotropic swimmers with and without hydrodynamic interactions are discussed.