When and the bead hydrodynamic mobility matrix is , has inverse-stress units. With , and , the dimensionless mobility is . Thus and a positive-definite conformation tensor ensure a positive-definite mobility. The closed constitutive equation is , with and . This dimensional differs from conventions in which the symbol denotes itself.
Let be the unnormalized conformation tensor, the velocity gradient, and a symmetric positive hydrodynamic mobility matrix independent of the individual connector. The connector Fokker-Planck equation has drift and diffusion matrix . Integrating its second moment twice by parts gives the displayed upper-convected derivative, . If is a polynomial in , the two matrices commute and the relaxation term simplifies to . No Gaussian distribution assumption is required for this moment closure.
Hydrodynamic interaction 2026-10-06
Bodies immersed in one fluid affect each other through the flow that each produces. At large separation, a force-driven sphere generates a Stokeslet that modifies the other sphere's velocity. These interactions produce off-diagonal entries in the hydrodynamic mobility matrix.
Mechanical mobility 2026-10-18
Mechanical mobility relates a steady drift velocity to a weak applied mechanical force. For isotropic linear drag , terminal force balance gives with , in units . For a sphere obeying Stokes's law, it is . The corresponding translational hydrodynamic mobility matrix is . The Stokes–Einstein relation reads , and the velocity relaxation time is . In the bare-force spherical model, a particle with electric charge has electrophoretic mobility ; ionic-atmosphere effects can modify that simple model.
Mobility correction from a fixed distant sphere Created 2026-10-06 Updated 2026-10-14
For equal spheres of radius separated by , one held fixed and the other forced with , put , and . The method of reflections for Stokes flow gives , since the fixed sphere creates the reflected Stokeslet with force . The leading hydrodynamic mobility matrix correction therefore reduces longitudinal motion more strongly than transverse motion.
Let , , and , so the single-bead mobility is . Assume an incompressible solvent, constant , negligible bead inertia, and a symmetric positive-definite . The last requirement makes the resistance invertible and Brownian diffusion physically admissible. At a given position and time, depends on the moment but not on the individual configuration .
Use the source's gradient convention , and write for the component-first gradient. Then . The spring forces on the two beads are and . Their overdamped probability currents are
Here the Brownian term written as is a force weighted by probability density. Its corresponding conditional osmotic force is ; treating the given term as an unweighted deterministic force per bead would not produce the stated Fokker–Planck equation.
With midpoint , the derivatives are and . Subtracting the bead currents gives the configuration current
The midpoint current is after neglecting the specified spatial Brownian diffusion. Configuration probability conservation therefore gives
Since has components , this agrees with the source's . The factor two in both spring relaxation and configuration diffusivity comes from relative motion of both beads.
The second moment is the unnormalized conformation tensor. Now multiply by and integrate over configuration space. Assume sufficiently decaying tails so every boundary term at infinite separation vanishes. The affine current gives ; spring drift gives ; two integrations by parts of diffusion give . Hence
Because , is a polynomial in and commutes with it. Thus
This is the Hookean dumbbell conformation equation with anisotropic mobility, an exact second-moment closure within the stated model; no Gaussian approximation to was needed.
The upper-convected derivative of the identity is . Applying it to the polymer stress therefore gives
Consequently the coefficients and the closed stress equation are
where in the printed convention. Here is a polymer relaxation time, unrelated to the inverse-length parameter of question c; is the polymer viscosity scale. The coefficient has inverse-stress units. In the dimensional mobility parameter in the Giesekus model, the dimensionless factor is , not the dimensional printed in this problem.
The upper-convected rate removes the affine stretching and rotation of material connectors. If , then a tensor transported purely as has . Under a time-dependent rigid rotation , the rate transforms as : this is material frame indifference, not an ordinary componentwise time derivative. The resulting equation is the Giesekus model in these dimensional conventions.
The isotropic subtraction is fixed by zero polymer extra stress at thermal equilibrium. With no flow and positive mobility, the stationary distribution is
so . The constitutive equation correspondingly has a zero-stress quiescent state and a Newtonian low-rate limit . Without subtracting exactly , the spring contribution would retain an equilibrium isotropic stress and the equation would acquire corresponding reference terms. Because mobility itself depends on , that reference cannot simply be shifted while retaining the same model. The separate fluid pressure enforcing incompressibility is not included in this polymer extra stress.
For steady uniaxial extension of the Giesekus model, the component-first velocity gradient is diagonal, . For a steady spatially uniform diagonal stress, the material derivative vanishes and the convected terms are and . The off-diagonal equations vanish identically, and symmetry permits equal transverse components. The remaining equations are
Set , and , with . For , the branches continuously connected to zero stress at zero rate are
A sufficient nondegenerate range for physical solutions at every nonnegative rate is . Indeed with , so positive conformation implies positive mobility. The longitudinal quadratic equation is nonpositive at and has a nonnegative root of a polynomial. The transverse quadratic equation has values at and at , so its larger root of a polynomial lies in . Thus the displayed branches satisfy , giving . The other algebraic roots do not provide a physical branch connected to the equilibrium distribution. For constant positive diagonal , the associated stationary configuration distribution is a Gaussian with covariance .
For positive on the physical branch, the stretching stress remains finite through . At that rate,
At large extension rate,
Thus the stress continues to grow, but the uniaxial extensional viscosity approaches the finite plateau rather than developing a finite-rate pole. The transverse stress approaches as its conformation tensor variance becomes small. At small rate the two stresses are and , so .
When , the physical steady branch instead is
The stretching stress diverges as from below. Above that threshold its algebraic continuation has and cannot be a conformation covariance. There is no physical finite steady stretching state. The transient equation
gives linear growth at and exponential growth at larger rates, the Hookean coil-stretch failure of the upper-convected Maxwell limit.
Figure 1.
Anisotropic mobility rounds the Hookean extensional-stress singularity
. Dimensionless longitudinal and transverse stresses are plotted against the extension-rate parameter W. Positive dimensionless mobility factors 0.1 and 0.5 give regular equilibrium-connected branches. The isotropic-mobility longitudinal branch is shown only below its physical steady-state threshold W equal to one half. Details.
Parameter qualification. Positivity of alone, without a restriction on , does not ensure real physical steady solutions for the entire tensor. For example , makes the transverse equation , which has no real root. Its diffusion/resistance interpretation is already inadmissible for some conformations. The physically positive-mobility regime stated above avoids that counterexample; the source's positive- case must not be taken as a guarantee for arbitrary parameters.
Use the deterministic Hookean dumbbell model, with a zero-rest-length spring and negligible connector drag. For , its elastic forces on the two beads are
Here is the spring constant. No independent thermal forcing from Brownian motion or bead inertia is included. The unperturbed linear velocity field is , with by incompressibility.
The fluid velocity used in each bead's drag law is the imposed flow plus the disturbance from the other bead, with its own singular field omitted. At leading order in , the evenness of the Oseen tensor, , gives
These are the pair hydrodynamic mobility matrix relations. Their signs follow from balancing each spring force with , the fluid drag on that bead.
Adding the equations cancels both the direct spring slips and the cross-induced velocities, since . For the midpoint ,
The midpoint therefore follows the undisturbed linear velocity field. Subtracting the equations instead gives the hydrodynamic interaction of a Hookean dumbbell:
The dimensionless interaction matrix is
Its transverse and longitudinal eigenvalues are and , respectively. Since the spring force is longitudinal, the separation equation can also be written
The relative correction to the free-draining spring relaxation rate is therefore , explicitly proportional to . Entrainment by the other bead reduces their relative approach for given opposing spring forces.
This is a far-field hydrodynamic interaction, valid for ; it is not a near-contact law and omits higher reflections and lubrication. The printed target also fixes the spring's rest length implicitly. For an ordinary spring obeying Hooke's law with nonzero rest length , the elastic force would be , and every spring term above would acquire the factor . The displayed result uses the zero-rest-length spring convention appropriate to the ideal Hookean dumbbell model.
Put and . In the Unscaled Papkovich–Neuber representation, take the harmonic potentials and . Differentiating gives the Stokeslet velocity and its pressure:
Indeed, writing ,
The antisymmetric first two terms cancel in the rate-of-strain tensor, whereas their curl supplies the vorticity. Thus
The rate-of-strain tensor has zero trace, as required by incompressibility. The stress is ; integrating its traction with normal over a sphere gives . This fixes the force normalization of the Stokeslet.
For a sphere in a uniform straining Stokes flow, write the ambient velocity as , where is symmetric and trace-free, and set . Symmetry gives zero translation and rotation of the centred force-free, torque-free sphere. Seek a decaying disturbance using the Unscaled Papkovich–Neuber representation with
The components of are derivatives of , and is a trace-free harmonic quadrupole, so both potentials satisfy Laplace's equation outside the sphere. Direct differentiation yields
The no-slip boundary condition at requires the coefficient of to be and that of to vanish: , . Hence , , and
This disturbance cancels the ambient velocity at , decays at infinity, and has a leading stresslet proportional to .
For the two-sphere hydrodynamic interaction, let point from the forced sphere to the second sphere. The first sphere's leading far field is the Stokeslet with . Its incident rate-of-strain tensor at the second sphere is
The force-free sphere translates with the local uniform incident flow, and the torque-free sphere rotates with half the incident vorticity. Those parts cause no leading Stokeslet or rotlet disturbance. The remaining incident strain produces the stresslet just calculated. At displacement from the second sphere its velocity is
The first sphere translates in this returned incident flow. Finite-size sampling and higher incident multipoles enter only beyond the retained reflection order. Thus the stresslet reflection between two force-free and forced spheres gives
The factor makes explicit the velocity scale implicit in the printed remainder.
The resulting input power, equal to the viscous dissipation, is
It decreases at fixed force. The Minimum-dissipation theorem for Stokes flow instead compares admissible fields at fixed first-sphere velocity: extending a two-sphere field rigidly into the second sphere gives an admissible one-sphere field, so the extra rigid inclusion can only increase the minimum resistance. Allowing the second sphere to choose its translation and rotation minimizes over its rigid motions, producing zero force and couple there. An increase of this effective hydrodynamic resistance matrix decreases its inverse hydrodynamic mobility matrix, and hence decreases fixed-force power. The negative mobility correction is therefore consistent with minimum dissipation.
If the second sphere is prevented from rotating, its angular velocity relative to the incident fluid becomes
Use the rotating sphere in Stokes flow at . The additional reflected rotlet gives
Adding this rotation-clamped reflection between two spheres to the strain reflection,
The holding couple supplies no power because the held sphere's angular velocity is zero.
Let and be two Stokes flows in the same fluid domain, with equal dynamic viscosity and zero body force. The Lorentz reciprocal theorem for Stokes flow is
To prove it, use the symmetric Newtonian fluid stress tensor and . Incompressibility removes the pressure contraction, while symmetry removes the antisymmetric velocity gradient. Therefore
The divergence theorem proves the boundary identity. It applies to an exterior domain by a limit at infinity; the boundary integral there vanishes for decaying rigid-body Stokes flows.
Use a normal directed outward from the fluid, into the rigid body. Then and are the force and couple exerted by the body on the fluid. If and , inserting the rigid boundary velocity into the Lorentz reciprocal theorem for Stokes flow gives
Arbitrary rigid velocities imply . A separate integration by parts, using the Stokes equation, gives
Equality requires zero rate-of-strain tensor everywhere. Such a velocity is a rigid motion in the connected exterior fluid; decay at infinity forces it to vanish, and the no-slip boundary condition then forces . Hence the resistance matrix is symmetric positive definite. Defining force as fluid-on-body would reverse its sign, so the positive convention matters.
For the rods, choose body axes along , , and their normal. On the first rod, for , and the slender-body force density is
On the second rod, , and
Integrate the force densities and the moments , using , , and . For example, , , and . In the ordering , the full right-angle two-rod resistance matrix is
The planar subsystem is
Inverting this symmetric matrix gives the hydrodynamic mobility matrix
The upper-right entry is positive, as printed in the PDF; the negative sign in the converted TeX would violate both this inversion and reciprocity.
Let laboratory point along the initial and laboratory point upward. At body angle , and . The gravitational load, balanced by body-on-fluid resistance, has body components
The last expression follows by taking moments of the two endpoint weights about . Substitution into the hydrodynamic mobility matrix gives
For , the initial condition persists, and , : vertical descent without rotation. For , throughout , and the zero of at is stable. A simple zero is approached only as , so increases monotonically to . For , it decreases monotonically through and toward the next stable zero: , not .
The laboratory horizontal velocity of is
For , divide by the angular equation to eliminate time:
At both limiting orientations the sine and cosine are equal, so the sedimentation drift of a weighted two-rod body is
For the initial drift is negative. It reaches at , reverses, crosses its starting horizontal position at , and ends to the right. At exactly there is no horizontal displacement; the infinite-time displacement is discontinuous there because the rotation time diverges as .
When both spheres have the same effective downward weight, the second sphere adds a force-driven disturbance instead of being merely a force-free rigid inclusion. The power now contains both and , so the one-forced-sphere bound from part (iv) no longer applies.
For , place the spheres in a tandem configuration with . Locally the flow around the second sphere is dominated by its downward Stokeslet. Its axial incident velocity at the first sphere is downward, so the first sphere falls faster to leading order. By contrast, the zero total flux for localized tube Stokes flow requires compensating upward flow away from the downward-moving particle core in sections cutting the sphere. There are therefore positions in the return flow where the disturbance acts upwards.
One can choose the second sphere in such an upward-flow region generated by the first. The Lorentz reciprocal theorem makes the axial cross coefficients of the hydrodynamic mobility matrix equal, so the downward force on the second sphere then produces an upward contribution to the first sphere's velocity. With small well-separated spheres, this force-driven interaction dominates the higher-order self-resistance change from simply inserting the other sphere. In mobility notation, with downward positive,
and the cross coefficient can have either sign in the tube. Thus
The distinction is the sign of the incident flow, not whether adding a second geometrical obstacle lowers a fixed-velocity dissipation.
For two Stokes flows and of the same dynamic viscosity in the same region, with no volume force, the Lorentz reciprocal theorem states
Indeed, the divergence of their cross-work difference is
The pressure terms vanish by incompressible flow, and the derivatives of the Cauchy stress tensors vanish by the Stokes equation. The divergence theorem proves the result.
Use the convention that are the force and torque exerted by the body on the fluid. By Linearity of Stokes flow, . Applying the Lorentz reciprocal theorem to two independent rigid motions gives , so the hydrodynamic resistance matrix is a symmetric matrix. The boundary-power identity gives
This is strictly positive for nonzero rigid motion: equality would imply , hence a rigid motion throughout the connected fluid, which must vanish since the fluid is at rest at infinity. The no-slip boundary condition would then force . Therefore is a positive-definite matrix. Reversing to the fluid-on-body force changes the sign of the force law, not the positive resistance coefficients.
For the two rods, take the torque about and use body axes. On the -rod, , , and its slender-body force density is
On the -rod it is
Integrate and along both rods, using , and . A convenient dimensionally uniform statement of the complete right-angle two-rod resistance matrix is
In physical coordinates this means translation–translation entries scale as , the two translation–rotation blocks as , and rotation–rotation entries as . The planar block has inverse
This verifies the printed hydrodynamic mobility matrix with its third velocity component ; the TeX aid's is an OCR error.
Take laboratory vertical velocity positive upwards. The body axes are and . In quasistatic sedimentation the force and torque exerted on the fluid equal the gravitational resultants on the body:
The out-of-plane block is unforced, so its positive hydrodynamic resistance matrix gives . Substitution in the planar hydrodynamic mobility matrix gives
and
For , this ordinary differential equation has positive right side on , with a stable zero at . Uniqueness prevents crossing that equilibrium in finite time. For the initial angular velocity is negative, and the stable equilibrium reached from zero is . The heavier-end body turns clockwise through ; it does not settle at . More explicitly, with ,
where the continuous branch has . At , remains zero.
Transforming the translational velocity back to laboratory axes gives
For , eliminate time between and the angular velocity:
At either limiting orientation . Thus both cases have the same net horizontal displacement,
For the drift is monotonically rightwards. For it first moves left, reaching at , then reverses. The total horizontal path length in this second case is , whereas its net displacement is rightwards. At it falls vertically without rotation or drift; taking the infinite-time limit before is consequently singular.
For the requested sedimentation drift of a weighted two-rod body sketch, a full parametric trajectory follows by also integrating . Put and set the initial height to zero:
It tends to in either case while tends to . At both rods end pointing upwards from symmetrically; at they end pointing downwards symmetrically. The asymptotic downward speed is .
Figure 1.
Falling two-rod bodies: trajectory of O and successive orientations for lighter and heavier end masses
. Details.
The minimum dissipation theorem fixes the boundary velocities and the far-field velocity: among admissible incompressible velocity fields, the Stokes flow minimizes
For a competitor with zero boundary data for , integration by parts eliminates the cross term and leaves .
Extend the actual two-sphere velocity rigidly through sphere 2. It is an admissible field in the one-sphere exterior, with the same translation and rotation of sphere 1. It is continuous across the filled boundary, incompressible, and adds zero strain dissipation inside. Applying the theorem to the exact isolated-sphere flow therefore gives
With all applied couples and the second force zero, the boundary-work identity is . Thus , which proves
This fixed-force comparison of minimum viscous dissipation uses a comparison at fixed actual velocity first; directly comparing different-force or different-velocity solutions would not justify the result.
If , the power is instead , so the preceding estimate no longer bounds the force contribution alone. The two-sphere hydrodynamic mobility matrix generally has a nonzero self translation-rotation coupling: the freely moving second sphere reflects the first sphere's torque field. In the planar geometry this coupling produces a velocity perpendicular to ; by choosing the sign and magnitude of the couple when the force has a component in that direction, its contribution to can exceed the isolated force-only value. There is no universal force-only inequality with an additional applied couple. Special geometries can eliminate the coupling, but do not restore a general theorem.
The mobility correction from a fixed distant sphere gives
Taking their ratio and keeping the first nonzero transverse correction yields
to the stated leading order. Set . The deflection is , so replacing by on the right introduces only higher-order errors. Integrating from gives
The maximum occurs at , and the deflection and spin in a distant sphere encounter are
For the rotation, use and to leading order in the angular velocity from part (b). Its signed angle about the positive axis is
Thus the rotation is clockwise when viewed from positive , with the magnitude of the displayed leading term.
The deflection tends back to zero downstream: . More generally, kinematic reversibility of Stokes flow combined with reflection in the plane makes a passing trajectory fore-aft symmetric. One can see this without using the distant-sphere approximation: the relevant translational hydrodynamic mobility matrix has the form . Hence is even in and is odd in . Uniqueness of the trajectory through then gives .
For , the numerical deflection and spin approximations above are invalid: the encounter enters a narrow gap and requires lubrication theory. However, the same return to the incoming offset holds for an ideal passing encounter of perfectly smooth spheres in Stokes flow. Lubrication resistance prevents finite-time contact under a bounded force, and does not itself destroy kinematic reversibility of Stokes flow. Contact, surface roughness or nonhydrodynamic forces could change that conclusion; they are additional physics, not part of the ideal model. This distinction is the fore-aft symmetry of a sedimenting-sphere encounter.
Let be the dynamic viscosity, , and the signed force exerted by sphere on the fluid. For negligible sphere inertia, this also equals the externally or internally applied force on that sphere; its hydrodynamic force is . The Stokes drag law and the axial velocity of a Stokeslet give the leading hydrodynamic mobility matrix
The factor follows from when is parallel to the line of centres. The longitudinal two-sphere mobility retains the first interaction in ; finite-size and repeated-reflection corrections are higher order.
For the linked force-free pair, . Put and . Then
so
The coefficient depends only on the current separation. For any period , , and therefore
This is a closed integral of a single-valued function of one real shape coordinate. Since and , both spheres also have zero net displacement. Equal radii make instantaneously; unequal radii generally permit oscillatory translation, but still no mean motion. This explicit force-free two-sphere stroke is the scallop theorem: a single-parameter reciprocal deformation in a Newtonian fluid at zero inertia cannot produce net free swimming. The timing of extension and contraction cannot change that conclusion, because Stokes flow has no inertial memory.
For the externally prescribed pair, put , , and
Invert the hydrodynamic mobility matrix:
In a large- expansion with fixed,
The isolated-drag term and the constant- interaction have zero mean. The order- term from also has zero mean, since its coefficient is constant at that order. Meanwhile,
Consequently the externally driven two-sphere pump has the following phase-dependent mean force of an externally driven sphere pair:
Here denotes averaging over one period. The analogous calculation gives , so at leading order, and
Thus the mean fluid forcing is nonzero except at or modulo . The sign changes when the phase lag is reversed. Those exceptional strokes are reciprocal: the position-space loop collapses to a line, and their mean force vanishes by reversibility, not just by this leading expansion.
Figure 1.
An externally driven two-sphere stroke with phase lag pi over three encloses a position-space loop, and its leading mean fluid force varies as the sine of the phase lag
. Details.
There is no contradiction with the scallop theorem. The externally imposed motion is not force-free, and the actuators prescribe two phase-shifted motions; their combined motion is not reciprocal for a generic phase. The spheres return to their prescribed positions while transferring a mean force to the fluid. This is pumping by external forcing, rather than propulsion of the freely linked one-shape-coordinate system.
The asymptotic calculation requires and persistent large separation. The minimum separation of phase-shifted sphere oscillations is
The printed condition alone does not guarantee nonoverlap or the stipulated far-separated regime. The prescribed trajectories must additionally keep this minimum well above both radii. This is a compatibility qualification on the data, not a change of the phase-dependent force calculation.
A moving or externally forced colloid disturbs the surrounding fluid, changing the velocity of other colloids even without direct contact. These hydrodynamic interactions are long-ranged at small Reynolds number. In an unbounded incompressible Newtonian liquid, the Stokes flow response to a point force is the Stokeslet:
Its Oseen tensor is
This is a mobility tensor, with units velocity per force, rather than a stress tensor. At separation the response parallel to the line of centres is ; the perpendicular response is . Flow is not isotropic even though the solvent is. The disturbance decays as , so treating all drag forces as independent can miss correlated motion.
For well-separated equal spheres of radius , the leading hydrodynamic mobility matrix gives
The first term is the isolated-sphere self mobility; the remaining terms couple distinct particles. At thermal equilibrium the fluctuation-dissipation theorem also predicts correlated short-time increments, with the configuration locally fixed. Thus correlated Brownian displacements can reveal hydrodynamic coupling without an applied force.
The point-force approximation requires and negligible inertia. It diverges at the origin and cannot replace the finite self mobility. Near-contact lubrication, walls, many-body corrections, and a viscoelastic solvent require more complete mobility laws. A force-free particle can instead have a faster-decaying leading disturbance, so the claim specifically concerns a net-force-driven object.
Figure 1.
Oseen mobility directions
. Details.
Diffusion and mobility. For a dilute isolated sphere in a Newtonian fluid, Stokes's law gives the drag magnitude , where is the dynamic viscosity and is the hydrodynamic radius. The mechanical mobility is therefore ; the translational hydrodynamic mobility matrix is .
To relate mobility to diffusion, put the particles in a weak external potential energy . Their drift speed is . For number density , the sum of drift and Fick's first law fluxes is
At thermal equilibrium, the Boltzmann distribution gives , and the net flux is zero. Substituting into yields . Thus the Stokes–Einstein relation is
Here is the Boltzmann constant and is absolute temperature. The assumptions include a no-slip approximately spherical particle, a continuum fluid, a small particle Reynolds number, and negligible hydrodynamic interactions with other particles or boundaries.
Gravitational sedimentation. The buoyant force must be included, since the mass of displaced water is comparable to the protein mass. Using gives
so the buoyant mass in the stated spherical model is
The drag coefficient is . At terminal speed, , so
Ignoring buoyancy would give and would not use the supplied water density. This calculation treats the stated radius as both the hydrodynamic radius and the radius determining displaced volume; a real hydrated protein can require a separately measured partial specific volume.
Electrical drift. In the specified simple electrophoresis model, terminal force balance is . Therefore
where is the electrophoretic mobility and the elementary electric charge. For the given positive beta-lactoglobulin charge,
in the direction of the electric field. This exceeds the gravitational sedimentation speed by about .
Separation time. The two populations have equal drag coefficients because their radii are equal. Their difference in drift speed is therefore set by one elementary charge:
Starting with coincident band centres, their separation is . Hence
At that time the original band has travelled and the mutant . Their masses do not enter this ideal electrical force balance: equal-radius particles with different masses but the same charge would have equal electrophoretic mobility in this model.
Practical discrimination. A one-charge difference is enough for the stipulated separation, so the method is sensitive to mutations that change effective charge or friction. It cannot distinguish every mutation: substitutions that preserve charge and hydrodynamic size need not separate. Buffer pH changes protein ionization, and realistic electrophoresis also involves the ionic atmosphere, electro-osmosis, walls or gel interactions, and finite band widths.
For example, the Stokes–Einstein relation at gives . For an initially narrow band, diffusive broadening of electrophoretic bands gives
at the calculated separation time. Thus the centres are about diffusion standard deviations apart, rather than forming infinitely sharp bands. The stated centre-separation criterion is achievable in the model, but actual resolution also depends on the loading width and other dispersion mechanisms.
Figure 1.
Predicted band centres and diffusion widths after 508 seconds
. Original Gaussian drift-diffusion calculation for initially narrow bands, using the stipulated equal-radius model. Details.
Equivalent centrifugal acceleration. For the original protein to attain its electrical drift speed by sedimentation, its buoyant centrifugal force must equal :
Consequently
This is the acceleration at the protein's position in the rotating solution; no rotation rate can be assigned without a centrifuge radius. If the intended comparison is instead the relative separation speed of the two bands, use , since their displaced volumes are equal. Matching then gives . In that separation experiment the heavier original protein moves faster centrifugally, whereas the more highly charged mutant moves faster electrically.
Stresslet reflection between two force-free and forced spheres Created 2026-10-14 Updated 2026-10-25
Consider two widely separated rigid spheres of equal radius , with separation , in Stokes flow. Apply a force to the first sphere and let the second be force-free and torque-free. The second sphere samples the rate-of-strain tensor of the first sphere's Stokeslet, . Its leading disturbance is the stresslet of a sphere in a uniform straining Stokes flow. Evaluating that disturbance back at the first sphere gives
The hydrodynamic mobility matrix decreases at fixed force, consistently with the increase of resistance caused by an additional rigid inclusion.
At an equilibrium , the total force vanishes. A small transverse displacement must produce a transverse restoring force; a small axial displacement must also restore the bead. Downstream of a tight focus, the backward optical gradient force can oppose the forward optical scattering force. Equality at one point is insufficient: the total axial force must decrease as the bead moves downstream through that point. The equilibrium can therefore lie downstream of the intensity maximum.
For uncoupled overdamped coordinates, with decays only when each . More generally, linearizing gives , where is the hydrodynamic mobility matrix and at equilibrium. All eigenvalues of must have negative real parts for linear asymptotic stability. For a conservative force with symmetric positive-definite mobility, a positive-definite Hessian matrix of the potential energy supplies this condition. A general optical force need not possess a global potential energy.
Increasing numerical aperture admits more strongly converging light rays and a steeper axial variation of the field. But a larger nominal numerical aperture alone does not establish trapping: illumination of the objective pupil, optical aberration, particle properties and the actual in-liquid focus also matter. A harmonic optical trap describes local confinement after this stability question has been answered; it does not predict capture from arbitrary positions or an infinite holding force.