Thin Films of Chiral Motors

TL;DR

This paper develops a coarse-grained theoretical model for active chiral films, capturing flow and rotation patterns driven by chiral motors, with applications to biological systems like ciliary carpets and bacterial suspensions.

Contribution

It introduces a two-dimensional effective theory for active chiral films, incorporating force and torque balances and the intrinsic rotation field, advancing understanding of biological flow phenomena.

Findings

Describes generic flow and rotation patterns in active chiral films.

Highlights the role of intrinsic rotation in flow dynamics.

Provides a framework applicable to biological systems like ciliary carpets.

Abstract

Hydrodynamic flows in biological systems are often generated by active chiral processes near or on surfaces. Important examples are beating cilia, force generation in actomyosin networks, and motile bacteria interacting with surfaces. Here we develop a coarse grained description of active chiral films that captures generic features of flow and rotation patterns driven by chiral motors. We discuss force and torque balances within the film and on the surface and highlight the role of the intrinsic rotation field. We arrive at a two dimensional effective theory and discuss our results in the context of ciliary carpets and thin films of bacterial suspensions.