Coherent Hydrodynamic Coupling for Stochastic Swimmers

TL;DR

This paper explores how coherence in hydrodynamic interactions influences the collective behavior of stochastic swimmers, demonstrating that correlations between deformation modes enable complex behaviors like hunting non-swimmers.

Contribution

It introduces a new understanding of coherence in stochastic swimming, linking deformation correlations to collective dynamics and demonstrating their role in active systems.

Findings

Correlations between deformation modes mimic internal phase effects.

A swimmer can form a hydrodynamic bound state to hunt non-swimmers.

Coherence significantly impacts nano-scale stochastic swimmer behavior.

Abstract

A recently developed theory of stochastic swimming is used to study the notion of coherence in active systems that couple via hydrodynamic interactions. It is shown that correlations between various modes of deformation in stochastic systems play the same role as the relative internal phase in deterministic systems. An example is presented where a simple swimmer can use these correlations to hunt a non-swimmer by forming a hydrodynamic bound state of tunable velocity and equilibrium separation. These results highlight the significance of coherence in the collective behavior of nano-scale stochastic swimmers.