Self-Organization of Active Flow in a Nematic Swimmer

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In this project, we will investigate by means of computer simulations the Marangoni instability and self-propulsion in a recently introduced class of artificial microswimmers consisting of nematic liquid-crystal droplets in a surfactant solution. Our main objective is to elucidate the rich phenomenology of these swimmers, which includes symmetry-breaking into curling motion and, consecutively, into chiral motion. We intend to use the versatile toolbox we have developed for simulating liquid crystals via stochastic rotation dynamics (SRD). Our simulations will be capable of testing the validity of a recently published molecular model, a verification of which is highly desirable but still missing. In order to enable also the simulation of many-swimmer systems, we intend to develop a combined simulation code in which the external fluid is represented by continuous scalar fields. This will not only allow to predict interactions between swimmers, but also pave the way to studying collective dynamics.