Circular motion of asymmetric self-propelling particles

TL;DR

This study investigates the circular motion of asymmetric self-propelled particles, produced via soft lithography, and confirms experimental results with a Brownian dynamics theory coupling translation and orientation.

Contribution

It introduces asymmetric microswimmers and validates a coupled Brownian dynamics model for their motion near boundaries.

Findings

Asymmetric microswimmers exhibit circular trajectories.

Experimental results agree with the Brownian dynamics theory.

The model couples translational and orientational motion.

Abstract

Micron-sized self-propelled (active) particles can be considered as model systems for characterizing more complex biological organisms like swimming bacteria or motile cells. We produce asymmetric microswimmers by soft lithography and study their circular motion on a substrate and near channel boundaries. Our experimental observations are in full agreement with a theory of Brownian dynamics for asymmetric self-propelled particles, which couples their translational and orientational motion.