Destabilization of a flow focused suspension of magnetotactic bacteria

Active matter is a new class of intrinsically out-of equilibrium material with intriguing properties. The recent upsurge of studies in this field has mostly focused on the spontaneous behavior of these systems. Yet, many systems evolve under external constraints and driving forces, being subjected to both flow and various taxis. We present a new experimental system based on the directional control of magnetotactic bacteria which enables quantitative investigations to complement the challenging theoretical description of such systems. We explore the behavior of self-propelled magnetotactic bacteria as a particularly rich and versatile class of driven matter, whose behavior can be studied under a range of hydrodynamic and magnetic field stimuli. In particular we demonstrate that the competition between cell orientation toward a magnetic field and hydrodynamic flow lead not only to jetting, but to a new pearling instability. This model system illustrates new structuring capabilities of driven active matter.