title: Tangling of tethered swimmers: interactions between two nematodes.
abstract: The tangling of two tethered microswimming worms serving as the ends of "active strings" is investigated experimentally and modeled analytically. C. elegans nematodes of similar size are caught by their tails using micropipettes and left to swim and interact at different separations over long times. The worms are found to tangle in a reproducible and statistically predictable manner, which is modeled based on the relative motion of the worm heads. Our results provide insight into the intricate tangling interactions present in active biological systems.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada.
authors.forename: Matilda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Backholm
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada.
authors.forename: Rafael D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Schulman
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics and the Donnelly Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1A7, Canada.
authors.forename: William S
authors.initials: WS
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Brockhouse Institute for Materials Research, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4M1, Canada and Laboratoire de Physico-Chimie Théorique, UMR CNRS Gulliver 7083, ESPCI, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Kari
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Dalnoki-Veress
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological; D013550:Swimming / Q000502:physiology*