Thermally Driven Elastic Micromachines

Abstract

We discuss the directional motion of an elastic three-sphere micromachine in which the spheres are in equilibrium with independent heat baths having different temperatures. Even in the absence of prescribed motion of springs, such a micromachine can gain net motion purely because of thermal fluctuations. A relation connecting the average velocity and the temperatures of the spheres is analytically obtained. This velocity can also be expressed in terms of the average heat flows in the steady state. Our model suggests a new mechanism for the locomotion of micromachines in nonequilibrium biological systems.

5 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (5)

• The hydrodynamics of swimming microorganisms
• Analytic results for the three-sphere swimmer at low Reynolds number
• Mechanical Response of a Small Swimmer Driven by Conformational Transitions
• Elastic three-sphere microswimmer in a viscous fluid
• Swimmer-microrheology

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Hydrodynamic interaction between two elastic microswimmers