Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik
CPP 1: Active Matter I (joint session BP/CPP/DY)
CPP 1.9: Talk
Monday, March 9, 2026, 12:00–12:15, BAR/SCHÖ
Dynamically Induced Spatial Segregation in Multi-Species Bacterial Bioconvection — •Mingqi Yan1,2, Chenxi Wang3, Oscar Gallardo-Navarro4, Rinat Arbel-Goren4, Joel Stavans4, and Erwin Frey1,2 — 1Department of Physics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Theresienstraße 37, 80333 München, Germany — 2Max Planck School Matter to Life, Hofgartenstraße 8, 80539, München, Germany — 3School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, 518055, Shenzhen, China — 4Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Weizmann Institute of Science, 7610001, Rehovot, Israel
Bacterial bioconvection is a classic example of collective behavior in active matter, where upward-swimming bacteria create density instabilities leading to large-scale fluid flows. While this phenomenon is well-studied in single-species suspensions, natural environments are typically inhabited by diverse microbial communities. Here, we investigate the collective dynamics of multi-species bacterial suspensions. Combining experiments with a continum model, we show that different bacterial species can spontaneously segregate into stable, spatially interlocked domains. Our theoretical analysis reveals that this segregation is not driven by biochemical antagonism but rather by the interplay between species-specific motility characteristics and the self-generated hydrodynamic flows. This work provides new insights into how physical interactions alone can drive the spatial organization of complex microbial communities.
Keywords: Bioconvection; Spatial Segregation; Navier–Stokes equations; Continum model