Longitudinal diffusion of chiral active Brownian swimmers confined in narrow channels

Abstract

We study the diffusion of a self-propelling chiral active microswimmer that is subjected to thermal fluctuations and confined in a narrow channel. We apply a Smoluchowski equation approach and obtain a spatially-dependent effective diffusion coefficient. Finally, we apply this approach to two specific channel geometries and determine the effect of confinement and chirality on the swimmer's diffusivity.