Berlin 2015 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 17: Microswimmers (joint session DY, BP, CPP)
CPP 17.6: Vortrag
Dienstag, 17. März 2015, 10:45–11:00, BH-N 128
Spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking in model bacterial suspensions — Rebekka E. Breier1, Robin L. B. Selinger2, Giovanni Ciccotti3,4, Stephan Herminghaus1, and •Marco G. Mazza1 — 1Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), Am Fassberg 17, 37077 Göttingen, Germany — 2Chemical Physics Interdisciplinary Program, Liquid Crystal Institute, Kent State University, Kent, OH, USA — 3Department of Physics, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, P.le A. Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy — 4School of Physics, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland
Chiral symmetry breaking is ubiquitous in biological systems, from DNA to bacterial suspensions. A key unresolved problem is how chiral structures may spontaneously emerge from achiral interactions. We study a simple model of bacterial suspensions in three dimensions that effectively incorporates active motion and hydrodynamic interactions. We perform large-scale molecular dynamics simulations (up to 106 particles) and describe stable (or long-lived metastable) collective states that exhibit chiral organization although the interactions are achiral. We elucidate under which conditions these chiral states will emerge and grow to large scales. We also study a related equilibrium model that clarifies the role of orientational fluctuations.