Symmetry breaking propulsion of magnetic microspheres in nonlinearly viscoelastic fluids
A self-propelling agent at small Reynolds numbers usually requires a fore-aft asymmetry in order to circumvent the scallop theorem. Here Rogowski et al. show that this need not be true for motion in non-linear viscoelastic fluids, where an initial symmetry may be broken spontaneously.
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Nature Portfolio
2021-02-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-21322-0 |