Universal laws of collective motion of swimmers

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26610112
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Mathematical physics/Fundamental condensed matter physics
• Research Institution: Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: Nagai Ken 北陸先端科学技術大学院大学, 先端科学技術研究科, 講師 (40518932)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: アクティブマター / ソフトマター / 生物物理

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, two kinds of swimmer made of softmatter were developed. The type of motion highly depends on the shape of the particle. Considering the high deformability of softmatter, the motion may be able to controlled through the deformation of the self-propelled particles by external field.
In addition, the dependence of the collective motion of E. coli on the body length was studied. We found the long-range orientationally ordered phase along with the long-range correlated density fluctuation when the aspect ratio was large enough. This was the first experimental realization of the phase which had been predicted more than twenty years before. Hence, this result was of great significance in the statistic physics of active matter.

Free Research Field

非線形非平衡物理