Year: 2011
Type: preprint
Abstract: Colloidal particles moving in a fluid interact via the induced velocity field. The collective dynamic state for a class of actively forced colloids, driven by harmonic potentials via a rule that couples forces to configurations, to perform small oscillations around an average position, is shown by experiment, simulation and theoretical arguments to be determined by the eigenmode structure of the coupling matrix. It is remarkable that the dynamical state can therefore be predicted from the mean spatial configuration of the active colloids, or from an analysis of the fluctuations near equilibrium. This has the surprising consequence that while 2 particles, or polygonal arrays of 4 or more colloids, synchronize with the nearest neighbors in anti-phase, a system of 3 equally spaced colloids synchronizes in-phase. In the absence of thermal fluctuations, the stable dynamical state is predominantly formed by the eigenmode with longest relaxation time.
Source: arXiv (Cornell University)
Institutions: University of Cambridge, University of Parma, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano Bicocca, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Gruppo Collegato di Parma, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Biologie Computationnelle, Quantitative et Synthétique, Université Pierre-et-Marie-Curie
Language: English
Topic: Micro and Nano Robotics
Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2952058092