The swimming properties of an E. coli-type model bacterium are investigated by mesoscale hydrodynamic simulations, combining molecular dynamics simulations of the bacterium with the multiparticle particle collision dynamics method for the embedding fluid. The bacterium is composed of a spherocylindrical body with attached helical flagella, built up from discrete particles for an efficient coupling with the fluid. We measure the hydrodynamic friction coefficients of the bacterium and find quantitative agreement with experimental results of swimming E. coli. The flow field of the bacterium shows a force-dipole-like pattern in the swimming plane and two vortices perpendicular to its swimming direction arising from counterrotation of the cell body and the flagella. By comparison with the flow field of a force dipole and rotlet dipole, we extract the force-dipole and rotlet-dipole strengths for the bacterium and find that counterrotation of the cell body and the flagella is essential for describing the near-field hydrodynamics of the bacterium.

A mesoscopic hydrodynamic model to simulate synthetic self-propelled Janus particles which is thermophoretically or diffusiophoretically driven is here developed. We first propose a model for a passive colloidal sphere which reproduces the correct rotational dynamics together with strong phoretic effect. This colloid solution model employs a multiparticle collision dynamics description of the solvent, and combines stick boundary conditions with colloid–solvent potential interactions. Asymmetric and specific colloidal surface is introduced to produce the properties of self-phoretic Janus particles. A comparative study of Janus and microdimer phoretic swimmers is performed in terms of their swimming velocities and induced flow behavior. Self-phoretic microdimers display long range hydrodynamic interactions with a decay of 1/r², which is similar to the decay of gradient fields generated by self-phoretic particle, and can be characterized as pullers or pushers. In contrast, Janus particles are characterized by short range hydrodynamic interactions with a decay of 1/r³ and behave as neutral swimmers.

Significance: The exploration of chiral active matter composed of self-spinning objects, which breaks both parity and time-reversal symmetries, is an exciting and rapidly developing area. A particularly interesting phenomenon of chiral active matter is the emergence of a spontaneous unidirectional collective edge flow in confinement, with potentials for robust material transport. This unique feature has generally been discussed in the context of incompressible and structureless homogeneous fluid. Here, we show that confinement-induced nonuniform distribution of spinners greatly influences the edge flow, causing a spatially oscillatory pattern. Moreover, as the structure of the active media varies, different collective modes emerge. These findings significantly advance our understanding of collective behavior of chiral active matter in confinement.

Broken time-reversal and parity symmetries in active spinner fluids imply a nondissipative “odd viscosity,” engendering phenomena unattainable in traditional passive or active fluids. Here we show that the odd viscosity itself can lead to a Hall-like transport when the active chiral fluid flows through a quenched matrix of obstacles, reminiscent of the anomalous Hall effect. The Hall-like velocity depends significantly on the spinner activity and longitudinal flow due to the interplay between odd viscosity and spinner–obstacle collisions. Our findings underscore the importance of odd viscosity in active chiral matter and elucidate its essential role in the anomalous Hall-like effect.

The discovery of topological edge states that unidirectionally propagate along the boundary of system without backscattering has enabled the development of new design principles for material or information transport. Here, we show that the topological edge flow supported by the chiral active fluid composed of spinners can even robustly transport an immersed intruder with the aid of the spinner-mediated depletion interaction between the intruder and boundary. Importantly, the effective interaction significantly depends on the dissipationless odd viscosity of the chiral active fluid, which originates from the spinning-induced breaking of time-reversal and parity symmetries, rendering the transport controllable. Our findings propose a novel avenue for robust cargo transport and could open a range of new possibilities throughout biological and microfluidic systems.