Confinement-induced motion of ciliates
Fuente:
arXiv
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| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2026
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | |
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| _version_ | 1866918292734607360 |
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| author | Antunes, G. C. Stark, H. |
| author_facet | Antunes, G. C. Stark, H. |
| contents | The time dynamics of flagellar and ciliary beating is often neglected in theories of microswimmers, with the most common models prescribing a time-constant actuation of the surrounding fluid. By explicitly introducing a metachronal wave, coarse-grained to a sinusoidal surface slip velocity, we show that a spatial resonance between the metachronal wave and the corrugation of a confining cylindrical channel enables a ciliate to swim even when it cannot move forward in a bulk fluid. Using lubrication theory, we reduce the problem to the Adler equation that reveals an oscillatory and ballistic swimming regime. Interestingly, a ciliate can even reverse its swimming direction in a corrugated channel compared to the bulk fluid. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2601_11424 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Confinement-induced motion of ciliates Antunes, G. C. Stark, H. Soft Condensed Matter Fluid Dynamics The time dynamics of flagellar and ciliary beating is often neglected in theories of microswimmers, with the most common models prescribing a time-constant actuation of the surrounding fluid. By explicitly introducing a metachronal wave, coarse-grained to a sinusoidal surface slip velocity, we show that a spatial resonance between the metachronal wave and the corrugation of a confining cylindrical channel enables a ciliate to swim even when it cannot move forward in a bulk fluid. Using lubrication theory, we reduce the problem to the Adler equation that reveals an oscillatory and ballistic swimming regime. Interestingly, a ciliate can even reverse its swimming direction in a corrugated channel compared to the bulk fluid. |
| title | Confinement-induced motion of ciliates |
| topic | Soft Condensed Matter Fluid Dynamics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2601.11424 |