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Dynamics of confined suspensions of swimming particles

Low Reynolds number direct simulations of large populations of hydrodynamically interacting swimming particles confined between planar walls are performed. The results of simulations are compared with a theory that describes dilute suspensions of swimmers. The theory yields scalings with concentration for diffusivities and velocity fluctuations as well as a prediction of the fluid velocity spatial autocorrelation function. Even for uncorrelated swimmers, the theory predicts anticorrelations between nearby fluid elements that correspond to vortex-like swirling motions in the fluid with length scale set by the size of a swimmer and the slit height. Very similar results arise from the full simulations indicating either that correlated motion of the swimmers is not significant at the concentrations considered or that the fluid phase autocorrelation is not a sensitive measure of the correlated motion. This result is in stark contrast with results from unconfined systems, for which the fluid autocorrelation captures large-scale collective fluid structures. The additional length scale (screening length) introduced by the confinement seems to prevent these large-scale structures from forming.