Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik
BP 14: Poster Session II
BP 14.2: Poster
Tuesday, March 10, 2026, 18:00–21:00, P2
Computational Modelling of Active-Polymer Dynamics in Gliding Filamentous Cyanobacteria — •Krishna Iyer Vadakkeputhanmadom Subramanian1, Stefan Karpitschka2, and Stefan Klumpp1 — 1Georg-August University, Göttingen, Germany — 2University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany
Filamentous cyanobacteria such as Oscillatoria lutea, Kamptonema animale and Nostoc commune constitute a natural realization of active polymers: long, flexible filaments that self-propel by gliding motility and whose activity can be tuned with light. Dense colonies display a rich repertoire of collective phenomena—nematic lanes, topologicaldefects, spirals, clusters etc.—yet the physical mechanisms that connect single-filament properties (bending rigidity, propulsion force, reversal rates) to these emergent states remain largely unexplored. We develop a Browinan-dynamics framework, each filament represented as a chain of active particles with tangential self-propulsion and stochastic direction-reversal events, and explore the collective-state phase diagram in the space of activity, rigidity and length of filaments. Through comparisons with experiments, we seek to understand the mechanisms behind reversal events, both at collective and filament levels.
Keywords: Brownian Dynamics; Filamentous Cyanobacteria; Active Polymers; Collective Behaviour; Semiflexible filaments