Enhanced diffusion over a periodic trap by hydrodynamic coupling to an elastic mode

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Lacherez, Juliette, Lavaud, Maxime, Amarouchene, Yacine, Dean, David S., Salez, Thomas
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Lacherez, Juliette
Lavaud, Maxime
Amarouchene, Yacine
Dean, David S.
Salez, Thomas
author_facet Lacherez, Juliette
Lavaud, Maxime
Amarouchene, Yacine
Dean, David S.
Salez, Thomas
contents In many physical systems, degrees of freedom are coupled \emph{via} hydrodynamic forces, even in the absence of Hamiltonian interactions. A particularly important and widespread example concerns the transport of microscopic particles in fluids near deformable boundaries. In such a situation, the influence of elastohydrodynamic couplings on Brownian motion remains to be understood. Unfortunately, the temporal and spatial scales associated with the thermal fluctuations of usual surfaces are often so small that their deformations are difficult to monitor experimentally, together with the much slower and larger particle motion at stake. Here, we propose a minimal model describing the hydrodynamic coupling of a colloidal particle to a fluctuating elastic mode, in presence of an external periodic potential. We demonstrate that the late-time diffusion coefficient of the particle increases with the compliance of the elastic mode. Remarkably, our results reveal that, and quantify how: i) spontaneous microscopic transport in complex environnements can be affected by soft boundaries -- a situation with numerous practical implications in nanoscale and biological physics; ii) the effects of fast and tiny surface deformations are imprinted over the long-term and large-distance colloidal mobility -- and are hence measurable in practice.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_06214
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Enhanced diffusion over a periodic trap by hydrodynamic coupling to an elastic mode
Lacherez, Juliette
Lavaud, Maxime
Amarouchene, Yacine
Dean, David S.
Salez, Thomas
Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
In many physical systems, degrees of freedom are coupled \emph{via} hydrodynamic forces, even in the absence of Hamiltonian interactions. A particularly important and widespread example concerns the transport of microscopic particles in fluids near deformable boundaries. In such a situation, the influence of elastohydrodynamic couplings on Brownian motion remains to be understood. Unfortunately, the temporal and spatial scales associated with the thermal fluctuations of usual surfaces are often so small that their deformations are difficult to monitor experimentally, together with the much slower and larger particle motion at stake. Here, we propose a minimal model describing the hydrodynamic coupling of a colloidal particle to a fluctuating elastic mode, in presence of an external periodic potential. We demonstrate that the late-time diffusion coefficient of the particle increases with the compliance of the elastic mode. Remarkably, our results reveal that, and quantify how: i) spontaneous microscopic transport in complex environnements can be affected by soft boundaries -- a situation with numerous practical implications in nanoscale and biological physics; ii) the effects of fast and tiny surface deformations are imprinted over the long-term and large-distance colloidal mobility -- and are hence measurable in practice.
title Enhanced diffusion over a periodic trap by hydrodynamic coupling to an elastic mode
topic Soft Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
Biological Physics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.06214