https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2008-00637-7
Brownian dynamics of a microswimmer
1
Physics Department, Technical University of Munich, 85748 Garching, Germany
2
Bear Stearns International, 1 Canada Square, London, E14 5AD, UK
3
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 02138, USA
Corresponding author: lobaskin@tum.de
We report on dynamic properties of a simple model microswimmer composed of three spheres and propelling itself in a viscous fluid by spinning motion of the spheres under zero net torque constraint. At a fixed temperature and increasing the spinning frequency, the swimmer demonstrates a transition from dissipation-dominated to a pumping-dominated motion regime characterized by negative effective friction coefficient. In the limit of high frequencies, the diffusion of the swimmer can be described by a model of an active particle with constant velocity.
© EDP Sciences, Springer-Verlag, 2008
