Stability and Spatial Autocorrelations of Suspensions of Microswimmers with Heterogeneous Spin

TL;DR

This paper develops a stochastic kinetic theory model to analyze the stability and spatial correlations in suspensions of microswimmers with heterogeneous spins, providing insights into pattern formation and collective behaviors.

Contribution

It extends existing models to include multiple spin velocity populations, offering a novel analytical framework for understanding active particle suspensions with heterogeneity.

Findings

Identification of conditions leading to suspension instabilities

Insights into how active particle rotations influence spatial correlations

Analytical explanations for observed pattern formations

Abstract

Hydrodynamical interactions of active micro-particles are pervasive in our planet's fluid environments. Hence, understanding the interactions of these self-propelled particles is essential for science and engineering. In this paper the suspensions of active swimmer-rotor particles have been mathematically modeled by extending a previously developed stochastic kinetic theory to analyze heterogeneous collections of microswimmers and microrotors with multiple spin velocity populations. The paper uses this modeling approach to derive insights on large scale properties such as suspension instabilities and spatial correlations of the active particles and highlights the role of active particle rotations on the behavior of the suspension. This study will have an eye on analytically explaining pattern formation results observed for self-propelled micro-particles using numerical and lab experiments.