Long-range nematic order and anomalous fluctuations in suspensions of swimming filamentous bacteria
Abstract
We study the collective dynamics of elongated swimmers in a very thin fluid layer by devising long,
filamentous, non-tumbling bacteria. The strong confinement induces weak nematic alignment upon
collision, which, for large enough density of cells, gives rise to global nematic order. This homogeneous
but fluctuating phase, observed on the largest experimentally-accessible scale of millimeters,
exhibits the properties predicted by standard models for flocking such as the Vicsek-style model of
polar particles with nematic alignment: true long-range nematic order and non-trivial giant number
fluctuations
Domains
Physics [physics]
Origin : Files produced by the author(s)