Modeling Directed Motion in Active Microswimmers

Physical models can be used to understand the dynamics of biological systems such as bacterial motion or muscle contractions, which are essential to a mechanistic understanding of these phenomena. Some existing coarse-grained models of microswimmer dynamics provide a mathematical description of biological phenomena, but may not account for stochasticity arising from external factors in broader biological applications. In this poster, we describe a method for modeling active swimmer dynamics through a Langevin equation with asymmetric active forces applied to the head and tail of the swimmer. The interplay between the phase-shifted forces and dynamic extension can generate directed motion in one-dimension. Using simulated microswimmers in a thermal bath, we find quantitative agreement between the numerical results and Runga-Kutta solutions to the pre-averaged Langevin equation. Our model provides the Biophysical community with an analytically tractable, predictive, and generalizable model for microswimmer dynamics.