Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
Phys Rev Lett. 2011 Jun 10;106(23):238102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.106.238102. Epub 2011 Jun 6.
We show that gyrotactic motility within a steady vortical flow leads to tightly clustered aggregations of microorganisms. Two dimensionless numbers, characterizing the relative swimming speed and stability against overturning by vorticity, govern the coupling between motility and flow. Exploration of parameter space reveals a striking array of patchiness regimes. Aggregations are found to form within a few overturning time scales, suggesting that vortical flows might be capable of efficiently separating species with different motility characteristics.
我们证明了在稳定的涡旋流中旋进运动导致微生物紧密聚集。两个无量纲数，即特征游泳速度和抗涡度翻转稳定性，控制着运动和流动之间的耦合。参数空间的探索揭示了一系列引人注目的斑块状态。在几个翻转时间尺度内发现了聚集的形成，这表明涡旋流可能有能力有效地分离具有不同运动特性的物种。
