2016/09/30 by Eric Lauga, Sébastien Michelin, Sebastien Michelin
Engineering · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Active matter #Classical mechanics #Collective motion #Dipole #Geometry #Mathematics #Mechanics #Micro and Nano Robotics #Microfluidic and Bio-sensing Technologies #Modular Robots and Swarm Intelligence #Motion (physics) #Particle (ecology) #Physics #Quantum mechanics #Reciprocal #Surface (topology) #cond-mat.soft #physics.bio-ph #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevlett.117.148001
published as Phys. Rev. Lett. (2016), 117, 148001, 2016 · 5 pages; 1 figure
openalex publication_date 2016/09/30 · arxiv created 2019/02/14 · arxiv updated 2019/02/15 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Active particles disturb the fluid around them as force dipoles, or stresslets, which govern their collective dynamics. Unlike swimming speeds, the stresslets of active particles are rarely determined due to the lack of a suitable theoretical framework for arbitrary geometry. We propose a general method, based on the reciprocal theorem of Stokes flows, to compute stresslets as integrals of the velocities on the particle's surface, which we illustrate for spheroidal chemically active particles. Our method will allow tuning the stresslet of artificial swimmers and tailoring their collective motion in complex environments.