Collective dynamics in suspensions of micro-swimmers
Enkeleida Lushi, Imperial College, London

Abstract:
Microorganisms play an important role in many biological and engineering  phenomena. Recent research efforts have seek to use microorganisms for various technological applications as well as design chemically powered micro-particles that mimic microorganism locomotion. Understanding aspects
of their locomotion and collective behavior is essential to understanding physical phenomena as well as how to best use them in applications. Designing mathematical and computational models to be help by scientists in these endeavors is paramount.

In this talk I will introduce a minimalistic mathematical model for motile particles that captures the far-field as well as near-field behavior and interactions of a pair micro-swimmers as observed in experiments. The interactions between the motile particles depend on their swimming mechanism and this affects the collective motions. I will briefly outline a novel computational model that enables us to trace the dynamics of thousands of such motile interacting particles. The model satisfactorily captures coherent structures of bacterial suspensions observed in experiments. The microscopic characteristics of the swimmers can affect
the macroscopic properties of the suspension and fluid. Lastly, applications of the method will be discussed, e.g. in for bacteria suspensions or synthetic chemical particles.