2016/06/13 by Madison S. Krieger, Krieger, Madison S.
Physics and Astronomy · #Chaotic Dynamics (nlin.CD) #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Soft Condensed Matter (cond-mat.soft) #cond-mat.soft #nlin.CD #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1606.04063
arxiv created 2016/06/13 · arxiv updated 2016/06/14
Recent experiments have shown that many species of microorganisms leave a solid surface at a fixed angle determined by steric interactions and near-field hydrodynamics. This angle is completely independent of the incoming angle. For several collisions in a closed body this determines a unique type of billiard system, an aspecular billiard in which the outgoing angle is fixed for all collisions. We analyze such a system using numerical simulation of this billiard for varying tables and outgoing angles, and also utilize the theory of one-dimensional maps and wavefront dynamics. When applicable we cite results from and compare our system to similar billiard systems in the literature. We focus on examples from three broad classes: the ellipse, the Bunimovich billiards, and the Sinai billiards. The effect of a noisy outgoing angle is also discussed.