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Special Semester on Quantitative Biology analyzed by Mathematical Methods
Linz, October 1, 2007 - January 27, 2008
Onset of collective behavior in colonies of swimming microorganisms

Workshop on Biomechanics and Chemotaxis, Wed, 12 Dec, 2007

Speaker: Igor Aronson

Abstract

At concentrations near the maximum allowed by steric repulsion, swimming bacteria form a dynamical state exhibiting extended spatio-temporal coherence.
The viscous fluid into which locomotive energy of individual microorganisms is transferred also carries interactions that drive the coherence. The concentration dependence of correlations in the collective state is probed here with a novel technique that herds bacteria into condensed populations of adjustable concentration.
Continuum models have indicated that a state of uniform swimming order is linearly unstable at finite wavelengths, but have not addressed the nonlinear dynamics of the coherent state, with its biological implications for mixing, transport, and intercellular communication.
We investigate a specific model incorporating hydrodynamic interactions in thin-film geometries and show by numerical studies that it displays large scale persistently recurring vortices, as actually observed.

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