Rotational motion of a camphor disk in a circular region

Abstract

In a two-dimensional axisymmetric system, a symmetric self-propelled particle exhibits rotational or oscillatory motion from the consideration of the system symmetry. In the present paper, we studied the motion of a camphor disk confined in a two-dimensional circular region. By reducing the mathematical model describing the dynamics of the motion of a camphor disk and the concentration field of camphor molecules on a water surface, we analyzed the reduced equations around a bifurcation point where the rest state at the center of the system becomes unstable. As a result, we found that rotational motion is stably realized through the double-Hopf bifurcation from the rest state. The theoretical results were confirmed by numerical calculation and well corresponded to the experimental results.