Swimming droplet driven by pattern formation on the interface

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K17717
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Mathematical physics/Fundamental condensed matter physics
• Research Institution: Kyushu University
• Principal Investigator: Ebata Hiroyuki 九州大学, 先導物質化学研究所, 学術研究員 (90723213)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: アクティブマター / 自発運動 / 細胞運動

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In general, many organisms spontaneously migrate by self-propelling motions through the repeated deformation of their body. Although such self-propelling motion is ubiquitous for both living and non-living objects, it is still unclear whether universal relations between shape and movement exist. To explore universal laws of self-propelled objects, I investigated bifurcations of motion of a swimming droplet in viscous fluid. Through the 3D measurement of shape of the droplet, I showed that spontaneous symmetry breaking of the standing wave on the droplet induces the bifurcation of the droplet motion. We demonstrated that not only migration modes of swimming droplet but also cell migration dynamics can be well described by the model equations of deformable self-propelled particle. This result suggests the possibility to treat the self-propelled motions of both living and non-living objects in the same theoretical framework.

Free Research Field

アクティブマター物理学