Work

Instabilities and turbulence in extensile swimmer suspensions

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The ordered state of microswimmers can be destroyed by an instability created by their swimming stresses. This leads to chaotic flows that resemble turbulence characterized by the presence of topological defects, a phenomenon known as active turbulence. We show that for pushers, the defect turbulent state transitions to a novel concentration-wave turbulent state reported earlier, where defects coexist along with concentration waves. This state emerges from an instability where fluctuations in the concentration of swimmers play a dominant role. Our study aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the instabilities and turbulence in weakly inertial suspensions of pushers.

Source: Physical Review Fluids

DOI: 10.1103/32td-zfcn

Authors: Purnima Jain, Navdeep Rana, Roberto Benzi, Prasad Perlekar

Institutions: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Beihang University

Language: English

Topic: Micro and Nano Robotics

Subfield: Condensed Matter Physics

Field: Physics and Astronomy

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India

Awards: G1826921831, G516658781