(Cancelled) The laminar and turbulent flows of chiral fluids

Classical theories of continuum mechanics - hydrodynamics and elasticity - rely on symmetries, such as isotropy, time-reversal invariance, or mirror symmetry. These are obeyed by familiar fluids such as air or water. Yet, many systems in soft matter do not satisfy these constraints. In this talk, I will discuss a theoretical fluid mechanics framework to describe the consequences of these broken symmetries on fluid flow. Concretely, we consider chiral fluids, such as fluids composed of spinning particles or driven by a magnetic field. These fluids can be described by adding so-called “odd” viscosities, which do not dissipate energy, in the Navier-Stokes equations. Using a combination of analytical and numerical methods, we show how these odd viscosity coefficients modify flow across a range of Reynolds numbers. In the low Reynolds number limit, sedimenting particles in a chiral fluid generate a rotating flow that is absent in usual fluids; in turn, this flow affects how immersed particles respond to forces and torques. At intermediate Reynolds numbers, odd viscosity reshapes the vortex structure of the wake of a sphere. At high Reynolds numbers, the non-dissipative nature of odd viscosity disrupts the energy cascade that occurs in fully developed turbulent flows, leading to pattern formation with a tunable scale.