Stochastic Hydrodynamic Synchronization in Rotating Energy Landscapes

Abstract

Hydrodynamic synchronization provides a general mechanism for the spontaneous emergence of coherent beating states in independently driven mesoscopic oscillators. A complete physical picture of those phenomena is of definite importance to the understanding of biological cooperative motions of cilia and flagella. Moreover, it can potentially suggest novel routes to exploit synchronization in technological applications of soft matter. We demonstrate that driving colloidal particles in rotating energy landscapes results in a strong tendency towards synchronization, favouring states where all beads rotate in phase. The resulting dynamics can be described in terms of activated jumps with transition rates that are strongly affected by hydrodynamics leading to an increased probability and lifetime of the synchronous states. Using holographic optical tweezers we quantitatively verify our predictions in a variety of spatial configurations of rotors.

Copyright (2013) by the American Physical Society

References in corpus (2)

• The hydrodynamics of swimming microorganisms
• Synchronization of rotating helices by hydrodynamic interactions

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Physics of Microswimmers - Single Particle Motion and Collective Behavior
• Realizing the physics of motile cilia synchronization with driven colloids
• Energy flow between two hydrodynamically coupled particles kept at different effective temperatures
• Collective excitations of hydrodynamically coupled driven colloidal particles
• Optically Controlled Stochastic Jumps of Individual Gold Nanorod Rotary Motors
• Optical Tweezers: A Comprehensive Tutorial from Calibration to Applications