Hydrodynamic synchronization of flagellar oscillators

Abstract

We survey the theory synchronization in collections of noisy oscillators. This framework is applied to flagellar synchronization by hydrodynamic interactions. The time-reversibility of hydrodynamics at low Reynolds numbers prompts swimming strokes that break symmetry to facilitate hydrodynamic synchronization. We discuss different physical mechanisms for flagellar synchronization, which break this symmetry in different ways.Comment: 15 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in EPJ Special Topics Issue,Lecture Notes of the Summer School "Microswimmers -- From Single Particle Motion to Collective Behaviour'', organised by the DFG Priority Programme SPP 1726 (Forschungszentrum J\"ulich, J\"ulich, 2015