title: Flagellar dynamics of a connected chain of active, polar, Brownian particles.
abstract: We show that active, self-propelled particles that are connected together to form a single chain that is anchored at one end can produce the graceful beating motions of flagella. Changing the boundary condition from a clamp to a pivot at the anchor leads to steadily rotating tight coils. Strong noise in the system disrupts the regularity of the oscillations. We use a combination of detailed numerical simulations, mean-field scaling analysis and first passage time theory to characterize the phase diagram as a function of the filament length, passive elasticity, propulsion force and noise. Our study suggests minimal experimental tests for the onset of oscillations in an active polar chain.
authors.affiliation: Martin Fisher School of Physics, Brandeis University, , Waltham, MA 02453, USA.
authors.forename: Raghunath
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chelakkot
authors.forename: Arvind
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gopinath
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Mahadevan
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Hagan
mesh_terms: D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology*; D057446:Hydrodynamics; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D056004:Molecular Dynamics Simulation; D009068:Movement; D013499:Surface Properties; D014867:Water / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D014867:Water
keywords: active filament; follower forces; synthetic flagella