Thin Films of Chiral Motors

Abstract: Hydrodynamic flows in biological systems are often generated by active chiral processes near or on surfaces. Important examples are beating cilia, force generation in actomyosin networks, and motile bacteria interacting with surfaces. Here we develop a coarse grained description of active chiral films that captures generic features of flow and rotation patterns driven by chiral motors. We discuss force and torque balances within the film and on the surface and highlight the role of the intrinsic rotation field. We arrive at a two dimensional effective theory and discuss our results in the context of ciliary carpets and thin films of bacterial suspensions.