Particle displacements by swimming organisms

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Jean-Luc Thiffeault, University of Wisconsin
• Thursday 19 February 2015, 13:00-14:00
• MR14, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Julius Bier Kirkegaard.

The experiments of Leptos et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 198103 (2009)] show that the displacements of small particles affected by swimming microorganisms achieve a non-Gaussian distribution, which nevertheless scales diffusively. We use a simple model where the particles undergo repeated `kicks’ due to the swimmers to explain the shape of the distribution as a function of the volume fraction of swimmers. The net displacement is determined by the self-convolution of the drift function caused by one swimmer, and a Poisson distribution for the frequency of interactions. The only adjustable parameter is the strength of the stresslet term in our spherical squirmer model. The effective diffusivity measured in the experiments is consistent with the model, with no further parameter adjustments.

This talk is part of the DAMTP BioLunch series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All CMS events
• BioLunch
• CMS Events
• CamBridgeSens
• Cambridge Infectious Diseases
• Cambridge talks
• DAMTP BioLunch
• DAMTP info aggregator
• Interested Talks
• Life Science Interface Seminars
• MR14, Centre for Mathematical Sciences, Wilberforce Road, Cambridge
• Trust & Technology Initiative - interesting events
• bld31

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.