Self-organized beating and swimming of internally driven filaments

We study a simple two-dimensional model for motion of an elastic filament s ubject to internally generated stresses and show that wavelike propagating shapes which can propel the filament can be induced by a self-organized mec hanism via a dynamic instability. The resulting patterns of motion do not d epend on the microscopic mechanism of the instability but only of the filam ent rigidity and hydrodynamic friction. Our results suggest that simplified systems, consisting only of molecular motors and filaments, could be able to show beating motion and self-propulsion. [S0031-9007(99)08456-2].