Flow-free rotation of a spherical squirmer (source code)

= Flow-free rotation of a spherical squirmer

A spherical <squirmer> can rotate without disturbing the surrounding fluid if its prescribed surface slip exactly cancels the velocity of rigid rotation: $u'=-\Omega\times an$. The laboratory-frame boundary velocity is then zero. <Uniqueness of Stokes flow> with decay at infinity gives identically zero exterior velocity. In particular $u'=b_0\sin\theta\,e_\phi$ gives $\Omega=-(b_0/a)e_z$. The cancellation concerns the total fluid boundary velocity, not the solid material's angular velocity.