title: Hotspots of boundary accumulation: dynamics and statistics of micro-swimmers in flowing films.
abstract: Biological flows over surfaces and interfaces can result in accumulation hotspots or depleted voids of microorganisms in natural environments. Apprehending the mechanisms that lead to such distributions is essential for understanding biofilm initiation. Using a systematic framework, we resolve the dynamics and statistics of swimming microbes within flowing films, considering the impact of confinement through steric and hydrodynamic interactions, flow and motility, along with Brownian and run-tumble fluctuations. Micro-swimmers can be peeled off the solid wall above a critical flow strength. However, the interplay of flow and fluctuations causes organisms to migrate back towards the wall above a secondary critical value. Hence, faster flows may not always be the most efficacious strategy to discourage biofilm initiation. Moreover, we find run-tumble dynamics commonly used by flagellated microbes to be an intrinsically more successful strategy to escape from boundaries than equivalent levels of enhanced Brownian noise in ciliated organisms.
authors: The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, UK mathijssen@physics.ox.ac.uk.
authors: Arnold J T M
authors: AJ
authors: Mathijssen
authors: The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, UK.
authors: Amin
authors: A
authors: Doostmohammadi
authors: The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, UK.
authors: Julia M
authors: JM
authors: Yeomans
authors: The Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, 1 Keble Road, Oxford OX1 3NP, UK.
authors: Tyler N
authors: TN
authors: Shendruk
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria; D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D005407:Flagella / Q000502:physiology*; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological
keywords: biofilm initiation; biofouling; biological fluid dynamics; low-Reynolds-number flows; micro-swimmer dynamics