Influence of thermal fluctuations on active diffusion at large Péclet numbers

Abstract

Wavelet Monte Carlo dynamics simulations are used to study the dynamics of passive particles in the presence of microswimmers, taking account of the often-omitted thermal motion alongside the hydrodynamic flows generated by the swimmers. Although the Péclet numbers considered are large, we find the thermal motion to have a significant effect on the dynamics of our passive particles, and can be included as a decorrelation factor in the velocity autocorrelation with a decay time proportional to the Péclet number. Similar decorrelation factors come from swimmer rotations, e.g.~run and tumble motion, and apply to both entrainment and far field loop contributions. These decorrelation factors lead to active diffusivity having a weak apparent power law close to $P{e}^{0.2}$ for small tracer-like particles at Péclet numbers appropriate for E. coli swimmers at room temperature. Meanwhile, the reduced hydrodynamic response of large particles to nearby forces has a corresponding reduction in active diffusivity in that regime. Together, they lead to a non-monotonic dependence of active diffusivity on particle size that can shed light on similar behaviour observed in experiments by Patteson et al.

33 pages, 8 figures. The following article has been submitted to the journal: Physics of Fluids. If/after it is published, it will be found at https://aip.scitation.org/journal/phf

References in corpus (4)

• Diffusion and spatial correlations in suspensions of swimming particles
• Swimmer-tracer scattering at low Reynolds number
• Fluid transport and mixing by an unsteady microswimmer
• Anomalous diffusion in viscoelastic media with active force dipoles

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Active polar flock with birth and death
• Anisotropic diffusion of ellipsoidal tracers in microswimmer suspensions
• Interplay between Brownian and hydrodynamic tracer diffusion in suspensions of swimming microorganisms