Abstract
Spiroplasma bacteria propel through viscous fluids by sending kinks or domain walls between regions of opposite handedness down their helical body. A simple elastic model for the domain-wall propagation is formulated and studied using hydrodynamic simulations and scaling arguments, giving good agreement with recent video-microscopy observations. It is shown that the observed helical bacterial pitch angle is optimized for maximal speed and efficiency.
- Received 24 March 2007
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.99.108102
©2007 American Physical Society