Interaction between swarming active matter and flow: the impact on Lagrangian coherent structures

TL;DR

This study investigates how swarming active matter, like zooplankton, interacts with external flow structures, significantly affecting Lagrangian coherent structures and flow deformation, with implications for ocean mixing.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence of active matter's impact on flow structures, highlighting the coupling effects and susceptibility of flow regions to active matter perturbations.

Findings

Active matter significantly alters LCSs compared to random noise.

Active matter perturbations couple with background flow, deforming flow structures.

Small densities of active matter can notably influence flow dynamics.

Abstract

In recent years, research topics concerning active matter have attracted interest from diverse communities. It has been suggested that active matter-as represented by zooplankton-has potential in ocean mixing due to its intrinsic mobility and the sheer amount of biomass. However, prior investigations have predominantly overlooked the influence of external background flow, despite the ubiquity of flow driven by various sources in nature. The interaction between active matter and external flow structures has long been neglected. Here, we conducted experiments using a typical centimeter swimmer, \textit{A. salina}, and an electromagnetically driven quasi-two-dimensional flow to study the interaction between active matter and flow. We focused on the impact of swarming active matter on hyperbolic Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs) that mark the most straining regions in the flow. We illustrated that the impact of active matter on LCSs was much more significant compared to localized random noise with similar energy input. In addition, we revealed that the perturbation generated by active matter could couple with the background flow and further deform the LCSs. In addition, we also revealed that the rotational elliptical region of the flow was much more susceptible to active matter perturbation. We further described how the influence of active matter changed with their number densities and background flow intensities. We revealed that the LCSs could be decently altered even at a small number density of active matter. We aim to provide valuable insights and draw attention to the problem regarding the interaction between active matter and external flow structures.