title: Optimal swimming at low Reynolds numbers.
abstract: Efficient swimming at low Reynolds numbers is a major concern of microbots. To compare the efficiencies of different swimmers we introduce the notion of "a swimming drag coefficient" which allows for the ranking of swimmers. We find the optimal swimmer within a certain class of two-dimensional swimmers using conformal mapping techniques.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Technion, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Avron
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Gat
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kenneth
mesh_terms: D000656:Amoeba; D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials; D008124:Locomotion; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D012371:Robotics; D013550:Swimming