FIG. 8. Grooved flagellum model: Dependence of the translocation speed on the geometrical parameters of the phage. Left: U as a function of the length of the phage tail, Lt, based on Eq. 60 (blue solid line). The speed is an increasing function of Lt. The value of U at vanishing tail length is well captured by the theoretical approximation for short-tailed phages (red star). For large values of Lt, it approaches the theoretical approximation for long-tailed phages (black dash-dotted line). Right: U vs. the length of the fibres, Lfib, based on Eq. 60. The long-tailed approximation of Eq. 63 captures the decreasing behaviour of U with Lfib.
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