Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 81 3 b Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Use the rotation convention of part (a), so the orientation drift is . The steady gyrotactic orientation Fokker-Planck equation on the unit sphere isLet , , and introduce the rotation generator . Dividing by givesThe leading isotropic density is . At first order, writing , rotational diffusion makes no contribution because . The tangential drift is the spherical gradient of , whose divergence is . ThereforeIn the polar convention of the paper, , and . Thus, in the specified first-harmonic form,The correction integrates to zero, preserving normalization. The first correction has no dependence on because the isotropic leading density has zero spherical Laplacian; enters the next-order equations.
Spherical symmetry gives . Consequently the rapid-rotation mean gyrotactic orientation isIt is this small horizontal swimming bias, rather than a mean vertical orientation at leading order, that enters the concentration equation of part (c).
Past exam of the mathematics course of the University of Cambridge 2009 iii Paper 81 3 c Solution Created 2026-10-03 Updated 2026-10-14
Let be the cell number density. The steady cell conservation equation with isotropic translational diffusion isUsing the rapid-rotation mean gyrotactic orientation, put , so the swimming drift is . In the transverse plane, and . Thus andMultiplying the conservation equation by giveswith and . The base fluid velocity is tangent to the wall. Zero normal cell flux there is , orNormalization requires the cross-sectional mean of to be one.
For , set . The drift term acting on the leading constant vanishes, and the first angular harmonic satisfiesWriting turns this into the Modified Bessel differential equation of order one. Its regular solution iswhere is the Modified Bessel function of the first kind. The singular second solution is excluded at the axis, and the displayed coefficient enforces the wall boundary condition. The angular harmonic has zero area average, so the normalization is satisfied at this order.
When , the gyrotactic concentration layer at a rotating-cylinder wall has stretched coordinate . The leading radial equation is . The solution decaying into the interior is proportional to ; the wall condition fixes its coefficient to . HenceThis also follows from the large-argument asymptotic expansion of , which gives near the wall; within the layer. Its thickness is . The quoted exponential is a wall-layer approximation, not an exact solution all the way to ; the Modified Bessel function of the first kind formula supplies the regular continuation through the axis.