Brownian motion of ellipsoidal particles on a granular magnetic bath Article uri icon

abstract

  • We study the Brownian motion of ellipsoidal particles lying on an agitated granular bath composed of magnetic particles. We quantify the mobility of different floating ellipsoidal particles using the mean-square displacement and the mean-square angular displacement, and relate the diffusion coefficients to the bath particle motion. In terms of the particle major radius R, we find the translational diffusion coefficient scales roughly as 1/R2 and the rotational diffusion coefficient scales as roughly 1/R4; this is consistent with the assumption that diffusion arises from random kicks of the bath particles underneath the floating particle. By varying the magnetic forcing, the bath particles%27 diffusivity changes by a factor of ten; over this range, the translational and rotational diffusion of the floating particles change by a factor of 50. However, the ratio of the two diffusion constants for the floating particles is forcing-independent. Unusual aspects of the floating particle motion include non-Gaussian statistics for their displacements. © 2020 American Physical Society.
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publication date

  • 2020-01-01