Fig. 7. Model C Schematics and live Cell Images.

a Schematic of the top view of the droplet with polar coordinates (r*, θ^*) and of the particle-induced deformation, approximated as a quadrupole. The angle ϕ_p indicates the orientation of the quadrupolar rise axis, represented as a two-headed arrow. The angle ϕ indicates the orientation of the principal axis of curvature. b Schematic representation of Model C depicting bacterial orientation and packing having end-to-end and side-to side attraction. c, d Sequence of live cell images depicting bacterial end-to-end and side-to side attraction where, (b(2)) and (b(3)) are the schematics that represents (c) and (d), respectively. Bacterial orientation starts from 5 μm distance.