4 research outputs found
Swimming in circles: Motion of bacteria near solid boundaries
Near a solid boundary, E. coli swims in clockwise circular motion. We provide
a hydrodynamic model for this behavior. We show that circular trajectories are
natural consequences of force-free and torque-free swimming, and the
hydrodynamic interactions with the boundary, which also leads to a hydrodynamic
trapping of the cells close to the surface. We compare the results of the model
with experimental data and obtain reasonable agreement. In particular, we show
that the radius of curvature of the trajectory increases with the length of the
bacterium body.Comment: Also available at http://people.deas.harvard.edu/~lauga