Angular dynamics of small crystals in viscous flow

Abstract

The angular dynamics of a very small ellipsoidal particle in a viscous flow decouples from its translational dynamics, and the particle angular velocity is given by Jeffery's theory. It is known that cuboid particles share these properties. In the literature a special case is most frequently discussed, namely that of axisymmetric particles with a continuous rotation symmetry. Here we compute the angular dynamics of crystals that possess a discrete rotation symmetry and certain mirror symmetries, but that do not have a continuous rotation symmetry. We give examples of such particles that nevertheless obey Jeffery's theory. But there are other examples where the angular dynamics is determined by a more general equation of motion.