Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge / 2009 / iii / Paper 81 / 3 / a

Fix the sense of rotation by taking the fluid velocity to be $\mathbf{u}=\Omega (-x_3,0,x_1)$, with $\Omega >0$. Its vorticity is $-2\Omega {\mathbf{e}}_2$. In the convention where $B$ is the gyrotactic reorientation time appearing with aligning rate $1/B$, the bottom-heavy spherical-cell orientation dynamics isFor the stable orientation in the transverse plane, write $\mathbf{p}=(\sin \vartheta ,0,\cos \vartheta )$. The angle equation is $\dot{\vartheta }=-\sin \vartheta /B-\Omega$. If $B\Omega <1$, its stable fixed point satisfiesThe other planar fixed point has negative $p_3$ and is unstable. The positive-$p_3$ orientation also damps a small out-of-plane component because ${\dot{p}}_2=-p_3{p}_2/B$.

Once the orientation has relaxed to ${\mathbf{p}}_{\ast }$, the transverse trajectory obeysDefine the shifted axis byThen $(x_1-x_{1A},x_3-x_{3A})$ rotates rigidly with angular speed $\Omega$, so its squared length is constant. These are the gyrotactic circular paths in a rotating cylinder, andHere $\alpha$ is the acute angle between the plane through the two parallel axes and the horizontal plane; the directed displacement $OA$ in the chosen cross-section points to the lower-left. Reversing the sense of rotation reverses the horizontal displacement. Arbitrary initial orientations have an orientation transient before the exact circular trajectories; neglecting randomness alone does not remove that transient. The bulk result also assumes that the trajectory does not intersect the cylinder wall.