Emergence of Upstream Swimming via a Hydrodynamic Transition

  • Chih Kuan Tung
  • , Florencia Ardon
  • , Anubhab Roy
  • , Donald L. Koch
  • , Susan S. Suarez
  • , Mingming Wu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

84 Scopus citations

Abstract

We demonstrate that upstream swimming of sperm emerges via an orientation disorder-order transition. The order parameter, the average orientation of the sperm head against the flow, follows a 0.5 power law with the deviation from the critical flow shear rate (γ-γc). This transition is successfully explained by a hydrodynamic bifurcation theory, which extends the sperm upstream swimming to a broad class of near surface microswimmers that possess front-back asymmetry and circular motion.
Original languageEnglish
Article number108102
JournalPhysical Review Letters
Volume114
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 13 2015

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