Golestanian, R. and Ajdari, A. (2009) Stochastic low Reynolds number swimmers. Journal of Physics Condensed Matter, 21 (20). Art. No. 204104. ISSN 0953-8984
Abstract
As technological advances allow us to fabricate smaller autonomous self-propelled devices, it is clear that at some point directed propulsion could not come from pre-specified deterministic periodic deformation of the swimmer's body and we need to develop strategies for extracting a net directed motion from a series of random transitions in the conformation space of the swimmer. We present a theoretical formulation for describing the 'stochastic motor' that drives the motion of low Reynolds number swimmers based on this concept, and use it to study the propulsion of a simple low Reynolds number swimmer, namely, the three-sphere swimmer model. When the detailed balanced is broken and the motor is driven out of equilibrium, it can propel the swimmer in the required direction. The formulation can be used to study optimal design strategies for molecular scale low Reynolds number swimmers.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2009 IOP. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Journal of Physics Condensed Matter. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | PROPULSION; NANOMOTORS |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > Department of Physics and Astronomy (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Miss Anthea Tucker |
Date Deposited: | 19 May 2009 10:58 |
Last Modified: | 15 Sep 2014 01:33 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/0953-8984/21/20/204104 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Institute of Physics |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1088/0953-8984/21/20/204104 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:8604 |