Bacteria collective motion is scale-freeBenjamin Perez-Estay, Vincent Martinez, Carine Douarche, Jana Schwarz-Linek, Jochen Arlt, Pierre-Henri Delville, Gail McConnell, Wilson C. K. Poon, Anke Lindner, Eric Clementhttps://arxiv.org/abs/2509.15918
Bacteria collective motion is scale-freeSuspensions of swimming bacteria interact hydrodynamically over long ranges, organizing themselves into collective states that drive large-scale chaotic flows, often referred to as "bacterial turbulence". Despite extensive experimental and theoretical work, it remains unclear whether an intrinsic length scale underlies the observed patterns. To shed light on the mechanism driving active turbulence, we investigate the emergence of large-scale flows in E. coli suspensions confined within cylindri…