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Hydrodynamic interactions dominate the structure of active swimmers' pair distribution functions

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journal contribution
posted on 2019-05-31, 13:01 authored by Fabian J. Schwarzendahl, Marco MazzaMarco Mazza
Microswimmers often exhibit surprising patterns due to the nonequilibrium nature of their dynamics. Collectively, suspensions of microswimmers appear as a liquid whose properties set it apart from its passive counterpart. To understand the impact of hydrodynamic interactions on the basic statistical features of a microswimmer's liquid, we investigate its structure by means of the pair distribution function. We perform particle-based simulations of microswimmers that include steric effects, shape anisotropy, and hydrodynamic interactions. We find that hydrodynamic interactions considerably alter the orientation-dependent pair distribution function compared to purely excluded-volume models like active Brownian particles, and generally decrease the structure of the liquid. Depletion regions are dominant at lower filling fractions, while at larger filling fraction the microswimmer liquid develops a stronger first shell of neighbors in specific directions, while losing structure at larger distances. Our work is a first step towards a statistico-mechanical treatment of the structure of microswimmer suspensions.

Funding

This research was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (SFB 937, Project No. A20).

History

School

  • Science

Department

  • Mathematical Sciences

Published in

Journal of Chemical Physics

Volume

150

Citation

SCHWARZENDAHL, F.J. and MAZZA, M.G., 2019. Hydrodynamic interactions dominate the structure of active swimmers' pair distribution functions. Journal of Chemical Physics, 150: 184902.

Publisher

© the Authors. Published by AIP Publishing

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in SCHWARZENDAHL, F.J. and MAZZA, M.G., 2019. Hydrodynamic interactions dominate the structure of active swimmers' pair distribution functions. Journal of Chemical Physics, 150: 184902 and may be found at https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5085755

Publication date

2019-05-10

ISSN

0021-9606

Language

  • en

Article number

184902

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