2025/02/04 by Garai, Sagnik, Ursy Makanga, Makanga, Ursy +4 · 1 citation
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Biological Physics (physics.bio-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Micro and Nano Robotics #Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies #Molecular Communication and Nanonetworks #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft)
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2502.02462
openalex publication_date 2025/02/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Deformable boundaries are omnipresent in the habitats of swimming microorganisms, leading to intricate hydroelastic couplings. Employing a perturbation theory, valid for small deformations, we study the swimming dynamics of pushers and pullers near instantaneously deforming boundaries, endowed with a bending rigidity and surface tension. Our results reveal that pushers can both reorient away from the boundary, leading to overall hydroelastic scattering, or become trapped by the boundary, akin to the enhanced trapping found for pullers. These findings demonstrate that the complex hydroelastic interactions can generate behaviors that are in striking contrast to swimming near planar walls.