Fluid flows created by swimming bacteria drive self-organization in confined suspensions
Abstract
The collective dynamics of swimming microorganisms exhibits a complex interplay with the surrounding fluid: the motile cells stir the fluid, which in turn can reorient and advect them. This feedback loop can result in long-range interactions between the cells, an effect whose significance remains controversial. We present a computational model that takes into account these cell-fluid interactions and cell-cell forces and that predicts counterintuitive cellular order driven by long-range flows. This prediction is confirmed with experimental studies that track the orientation of cells in a confined, dense bacterial suspension.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- July 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.1405698111
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1407.3633
- Bibcode:
- 2014PNAS..111.9733L
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter;
- Physics - Biological Physics;
- Physics - Fluid Dynamics;
- Quantitative Biology - Cell Behavior
- E-Print:
- 8 pages, 4 figures