Reply to "Comment on 'Locomotion of a microorganism in weakly viscoelastic liquids' "

Phys Rev E. 2016 Nov;94(5-2):057102. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.94.057102. Epub 2016 Nov 8.

Abstract

In the present reply we show that the comments casting doubts on the results of our recent paper [M. De Corato et al., Phys. Rev. E 92, 053008 (2015)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.92.053008] are based on a misinterpretation of the second-order fluid constitutive equation. Nevertheless, we show that, by considering alternative constitutive equations for the viscoelastic stress, we recover, to first-order in the Deborah number, the same results already obtained by De Corato et al. [Phys. Rev. E 92, 053008 (2015)PLEEE81539-375510.1103/PhysRevE.92.053008], thus dissipating any possible doubt about their validity.