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Oceanic plates are doubly curved spherical shells, which influences how they respond to loading during subduction. Here we study a viscous fluid model for gravity‐driven subduction of a shell comprising a spherical plate and an attached slab. The shell is 100–1,000 times more viscous than the upper mantle. We use the boundary‐element method to solve for the flow. Solutions of an axisymmetric model show that the effect of sphericity on the flexure of shells is greater for smaller shells that are more nearly flat (the "sphericity paradox"). Both axisymmetric and three‐dimensional models predict that the deviatoric membrane stress in the slab should be dominated by the longitudinal normal stress (hoop stress), which is typically about twice as large as the downdip stress and of opposite sign. Our models also predict that concave‐landward slabs can exhibit both compressive and tensile hoop stress depending on the depth, whereas the hoop stress in convex slabs is always compressive. We test these two predictions against slab shape and earthquake focal mechanism data from the Mariana subduction zone, assuming that the deviatoric stress in our flow models corresponds to that implied by centroid moment tensors. The magnitude of the hoop stress exceeds that of the downdip stress for about half the earthquakes surveyed, partially verifying our first prediction. Our second prediction is supported by the near‐absence of earthquakes under tensile hoop stress in the portion of the slab having convex geometry. Plain Language Summary: Tectonic plates on earth are doubly curved spherical shells, which influences how they respond to applied forces during subduction. We use axisymmetric and three‐dimensional viscous flow models to study the dynamics of spherical shells sinking under gravity into the mantle below. We find the surprising result that the effect of spherical geometry on the bending of shells is greater for smaller shells that are more nearly flat, which we call the "sphericity paradox." We also find that the stress in the subducted portions of plates ("slabs") is dominated by the longitudinal normal stress (hoop stress), which is about twice as large as the more familiar downdip stress. Earthquake focal mechanisms from the Mariana subduction zone in the Pacific ocean confirm our prediction that no deep earthquakes should occur under tensile hoop stress in portions of slabs having convex landward geometry. Key Points: The dynamical effect of plate sphericity on subduction is greater for smaller plates (the "sphericity paradox")The state of stress in the central portions of subducted slabs is dominated by the longitudinal normal (hoop) stressMariana slab earthquakes confirm our prediction that convex slab geometry and tensile hoop stress never occur together [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both natural and artificial small-scale swimmers may often self-propel in environments subject to complex geometrical constraints. While most past theoretical work on low-Reynolds number locomotion addressed idealised geometrical situations, not much is known on the motion of swimmers in heterogeneous environments. As a first theoretical model, we investigate numerically the behaviour of a single spherical micro-swimmer located in an infinite, periodic body-centred cubic lattice consisting of rigid inert spheres of the same size as the swimmer. Running a large number of simulations we uncover the phase diagram of possible trajectories as a function of the strength of the swimming actuation and the packing density of the lattice. We then use hydrodynamic theory to rationalise our computational results and show in particular how the far-field nature of the swimmer (pusher versus puller) governs even the behaviour at high volume fractions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design of artificial microswimmers has generated significant research interest in recent years, for promise in applications such as nanomotors and targeted drug-delivery. However, many current designs suffer from a common problem, namely the swimmers remain in the fluid indefinitely, posing risks of clogging and damage. Inspired by recently proposed experimental designs, we investigate mathematically the dynamics of degradable active particles. We develop and compare two distinct chemical models for the decay of a swimmer, taking into account the material composition and nature of the chemical or enzymatic reaction at its surface. These include a model for dissolution without a reaction, as well as models for a reacting swimmer studied in the limit of large and small Damköhler number. A new dimensionless parameter emerges that allows the classification of colloids into ballistic and diffusive type. Using this parameter, we perform an asymptotic analysis to derive expressions for colloid lifetimes and their total mean squared displacement from release and validate these by numerical Monte Carlo simulations of the associated Langevin dynamics. Supported by general scaling relationships, our theoretical results provide new insight into the experimental applicability of a wide range of designs for degradable active colloids. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biased locomotion is a common feature of microorganisms, but little is known about its impact on self-organization. Inspired by recent experiments showing a transition to large-scale flows, we study theoretically the dynamics of magnetotactic bacteria confined to a drop. We reveal two symmetry-breaking mechanisms (one local chiral and one global achiral) leading to self-organization into global vortices and a net torque exerted on the drop. The collective behavior is ultimately controlled by the swimmers' microscopic chirality and, strikingly, the system can exhibit oscillations and memorylike features.