Fluid flows created by swimming bacteria drive self-organization in confined suspensions.

ABSTRACT: Concentrated suspensions of swimming microorganisms and other forms of active matter are known to display complex, self-organized spatiotemporal patterns on scales that are large compared with those of the individual motile units. Despite intensive experimental and theoretical study, it has remained unclear the extent to which the hydrodynamic flows generated by swimming cells, rather than purely steric interactions between them, drive the self-organization. Here we use the recent discovery of a spiral-vortex state in confined suspensions of Bacillus subtilis to study this issue in detail. Those experiments showed that if the radius of confinement in a thin cylindrical chamber is below a critical value, the suspension will spontaneously form a steady single-vortex state encircled by a coun

SUBMITTER: Lushi E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4103334 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature