Motion of a hot particle in viscous fluids

We study the motion of a hot particle in a viscous liquid at low Reynolds numbers, which is inspired by recent experiments with Brownian particles heated by a laser. The difference in temperature between a particle and the ambient fluid causes a spatial variation of the viscosity in the vicinity of the solid body. We derive a general analytical expression determining the force and the torque on a particle for low Péclet numbers by exploiting the Lorentz reciprocal theorem. For small temperature and viscosity variations, a perturbation analysis is implemented to evaluate the leading-order correction to the hydrodynamic force and torque on the particle. The results are applied to describe dynamics of a uniformly hot spherical particle and to spherical particles with a nonuniform surface temperature described by dipole and quadrupole moments. Among other results, we find for dipolar thermal fields that there is coupling of the translational and rotational motions when there are local viscosity variations; such coupling is absent in an isothermal fluid.