Instability of microbial droplets growing on viscous substrates
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866916026994655232 |
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| author | Herrera, Vicente Gomez Weady, Scott |
| author_facet | Herrera, Vicente Gomez Weady, Scott |
| contents | We develop and analyze a model for a flat microbial droplet growing on the surface of a three-dimensional viscous fluid. The model describes growth-induced stresses at the fluid surface, density variations in the bulk due to nutrient consumption, and the resulting fluid flows that arise. We reformulate this free-boundary problem as a system of integro-differential equations defined solely on the microbial domain. From this formulation, we identify an axisymmetric solution corresponding to a radially expanding disk and analyze its morphological stability. We find that growth forces stabilize the axisymmetric solution while buoyancy forces destabilize it. We connect these findings to experimental observations. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_13724 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Instability of microbial droplets growing on viscous substrates Herrera, Vicente Gomez Weady, Scott Fluid Dynamics Biological Physics We develop and analyze a model for a flat microbial droplet growing on the surface of a three-dimensional viscous fluid. The model describes growth-induced stresses at the fluid surface, density variations in the bulk due to nutrient consumption, and the resulting fluid flows that arise. We reformulate this free-boundary problem as a system of integro-differential equations defined solely on the microbial domain. From this formulation, we identify an axisymmetric solution corresponding to a radially expanding disk and analyze its morphological stability. We find that growth forces stabilize the axisymmetric solution while buoyancy forces destabilize it. We connect these findings to experimental observations. |
| title | Instability of microbial droplets growing on viscous substrates |
| topic | Fluid Dynamics Biological Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.13724 |