Irreversiblity in Bacterial Turbulence: Insights from the Mean-Bacterial-Velocity Model
Abstract
We use the mean-bacterial-velocity model to investigate the irreversibility of two-dimensional (2D) bacterial turbulence and to compare it with its 2D fluid-turbulence counterpart. We carry out extensive direct numerical simulations of Lagrangian tracer particles that are advected by the velocity field in this model. Our work uncovers an important, qualitative way in which irreversibility in bacterial turbulence is different from its fluid-turbulence counterpart: For large positive (or large but negative) values of the friction (or activity) parameter, the probability distribution functions of energy increments, along tracer trajectories, or the power are positively skewed; so irreversibility in bacterial turbulence can lead, on average, to particles gaining energy faster than they lose it, which is the exact opposite of what is observed for tracers in 2D fluid turbulence.