Onset of shear waves in a bacterial bath: A novel effect

Abstract

Recent experiments on particle diffusion in bacterial baths indicate the formation of correlated structures in the form of bacterial swirls. Here we predict that such a structural ordering would give rise to the new effect of propagating shear waves in a bacterial bath at length scales of the order of a swirl, which corresponds to time scales of the order of the lifetime of a swirl. Our prediction can be tested against future experiments in bacterial baths.