Three dimensional dynamics of ferromagnetic swimmer

It is shown that a flexible ferromagnetic filament self-propels perpendicularly to the AC magnetic field during a limited period of time due to the instability of the planar motion with respect to three dimensional perturbations. The transition from the oscillating U-like shapes to the oscillating S-like shapes is characterized by the calculated Wr number. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.