title: Optimal hydrodynamic synchronization of colloidal rotors.
abstract: Synchronization of driven oscillators is a key aspect of flow generation in artificial and biological filaments such as cilia. Previous theoretical and numerical studies have considered the "rotor" model of a cilium in which the filament is coarse grained into a colloidal sphere driven with a given force law along a predefined trajectory to represent the oscillating motion of the cilium. These studies pointed to the importance of two factors in the emergence of synchronization: the modulation of the driving force around the orbit and the deformability of the trajectory. In this work it is shown via experiments, supported by numerical simulations and theory, that both of these factors are important and can be combined to produce strong synchronization (within a few cycles) even in the presence of thermal noise.
authors: Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, CB3 0HE Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors: Jurij
authors: J
authors: Kotar
authors: H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, BS8 1TL Bristol, United Kingdom.
authors: Luke
authors: L
authors: Debono
authors: Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, CB3 0HE Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors: Nicolas
authors: N
authors: Bruot
authors: H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, BS8 1TL Bristol, United Kingdom.
authors: Stuart
authors: S
authors: Box
authors: H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, BS8 1TL Bristol, United Kingdom.
authors: David
authors: D
authors: Phillips
authors: H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, BS8 1TL Bristol, United Kingdom.
authors: Stephen
authors: S
authors: Simpson
authors: H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of Bristol, BS8 1TL Bristol, United Kingdom.
authors: Simon
authors: S
authors: Hanna
authors: Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, CB3 0HE Cambridge, United Kingdom.
authors: Pietro
authors: P
authors: Cicuta