Dynamics of a helical swimmer crossing viscosity gradients

Abstract

We study how helical swimmers move across a viscosity gradient, motivated by the need to understand how such heterogenous environments affect the motion of microorganisms. We find that the swimmer's speed can be either decreased or increased while crossing the viscosity gradient, depending on the orientation of the tail and the gradient of viscosity. Our experimental findings are sustained by good agreement with a resistive-force based model.

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