Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 26: From Single-Molecule to Tissue Dynamics

BP 26.8: Talk

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 16:15–16:30, H43

Theoretical modelling of bacterial motor dynamics — •Eva Baresel and Rudolf Friedrich — Institute for Theoretical Physics, WWU Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Str. 9, 48149 Münster, Germany

The motion of self-propelled flagellated bacteria consists of two different modalities: "running" if all flagella rotate counter-clockwise or "tumbling" if at least one flagellum rotates clockwise. As a model for these bacterial motors we consider the dynamics of an ensemble of swimming objects which are composed of two rigidly connected point vortices. The single objects are able to show translation or rotation depending on the circulations of the single point vortices. We discuss the collective behaviour for several of these objects and the resulting velocity fields by means of numerical calculations.