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Brownian microhydrodynamics of active filaments

Slender bodies capable of spontaneous motion in the absence of external actuation in an otherwise quiescent fluid are common in biological, physical and technological contexts. The interplay between the spontaneous fluid flow, Brownian motion, and the elasticity of the body presents a challenging fluid-structure interaction problem. Here, we model this problem by approximating the slender body as an elastic filament that can impose non-equilibrium velocities or stresses at the fluid-structure interface. We derive equations of motion for such an active filament by enforcing momentum conservation in the fluid-structure interaction and assuming slow viscous flow in the fluid. The fluid-structure interaction is obtained, to any desired degree of accuracy, through the solution of an integral equation. A simplified form of the equations of motion, that allows for efficient numerical solutions, is obtained by applying the Kirkwood-Riseman superposition approximation to the integral equation. We use this form of the equation of motion to study dynamical steady states in free and hinged minimally active filaments. Our model provides the foundation to study collective phenomena in momentum-conserving, Brownian, active filament suspensions.