Hydrodynamics of a Micro-Hunter: Chemotactic Scenario

TL;DR

This paper introduces a hydrodynamic model of a micro-scale swimmer inspired by bacterial chemotaxis, capable of navigating towards chemical sources by adjusting its geometry and dynamics.

Contribution

It presents a stochastic low Reynolds number swimmer model that can effectively search for chemical sources, providing a theoretical framework for bacterial chemotaxis.

Findings

The swimmer can navigate towards higher chemical concentrations.

Adjusting geometrical and dynamical parameters enables targeted search.

The model offers insights into bacterial chemotactic behavior.

Abstract

Inspired by bacterial chemotaxis we propose a hydrodynamic molecular scale hunter that can swim and find its target. The system is essentially a stochastic low Reynolds swimmer with ability to move in two dimensional space and sense the local value of the chemical concentration emitted by a target. We show that by adjusting the geometrical and dynamical variables of the swimmer we can always achieve a swimmer that can navigate and search for the region with higher concentration of a chemical emitted from a source. The system discussed here can also be considered as a theoretical framework for describing the bacterial chemotaxis.