We present microscopic models for surface fouling of an isotropic spherical catalytic microswimmer at and away from equilibrium and show how a foulant gradient can induce chemotactic behavior. Our simulations establish that the presence of foulant manifests itself in two ways: as a braking effect on propulsive particle motion, and as a drift term which probes the foulant concentration gradient. Our results suggest that, while foulant gradients are unlikely to be directly useful for chemotactically directed particles, they nevertheless exert a non-negligible influence on particle motion under a wide range of conditions.

中文翻译：

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表面污垢是各向同性催化游泳者趋化性的机制

我们提出了一种在平衡状态和远离平衡状态时各向同性球形催化微泳器表面结垢的微观模型，并显示了结垢梯度如何诱导趋化行为。我们的模拟表明，污垢的存在以两种方式表现出来：作为对推进粒子运动的制动作用，以及作为探测污垢浓度梯度的漂移项。我们的结果表明，尽管污垢梯度不太可能直接用于趋化定向的粒子，但它们在很大范围的条件下对粒子运动都具有不可忽略的影响。