The Stokes resistance of an arbitrary particle: a classification of hydrodynamic symmetries

Abstract

The linearity of the Stokes equations organises the hydrodynamic response of a rigid particle into a hierarchy of resistance operators, coupling successive truncations of the ambient-flow jet to moments of the surface traction. Since the work of Kelvin and Larmor, it has been known that this response does not resolve particle geometry faithfully: bodies with discrete rotational symmetry may be indistinguishable from bodies of revolution (Brenner's helicoidal symmetry) and a chiral body may respond isotropically, as in Kelvin's isotropic helicoid. We regard the resistance operators as elements of finite-dimensional O(3)-representation spaces and use character formulae to determine, at every level of the hierarchy, which point-group symmetries are hydrodynamically distinguishable and the dimension of each invariant space. This yields an explicit nested sequence of hydrodynamic symmetry-group sets, from the translation-force level to the quadratic-flow level. The framework reveals hydrodynamic classes that no shape can realise geometrically, gives helicoidal symmetry a level-dependent definition, and shows that polyhedral symmetry becomes visible in a strict order: tetrahedral symmetry in shear, octahedral symmetry through the stresslet, and icosahedral symmetry in quadratic flow. Projecting the resistance operators onto force- and torque-free motion provides symmetry-based parameter counts and a constructive route to the corresponding dynamical normal forms. We thereby complete the Jeffery-Bretherton-Ishimoto classification, characterise all hydrodynamic classes producing Jeffery dynamics, and identify chiral tetrahedral and octahedral normal forms that can generate irregular full-attitude dynamics.