title: Partial synchronization of stochastic oscillators through hydrodynamic coupling.
abstract: Holographic optical tweezers are used to construct a static bistable optical potential energy landscape where a brownian particle experiences restoring forces from two nearby optical traps and undergoes thermally activated transitions between the two energy minima. Hydrodynamic coupling between two such systems results in their partial synchronization. This is interpreted as an emergence of higher mobility pathways, along which it is easier to overcome barriers to structural rearrangement.
authors.affiliation: School of Physics and Astronomy, SUPA, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, United Kingdom. arran.curran@glasgow.ac.uk
authors.forename: Arran
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Curran
authors.forename: Michael P
authors.initials: MP
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Miles J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Padgett
authors.forename: Jonathan M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Cooper
authors.forename: Roberto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Di Leonardo
mesh_terms: D003102:Colloids / Q000737:chemistry*; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008956:Models, Chemical; D010507:Periodicity; D013269:Stochastic Processes
chemical_list: D003102:Colloids