The spontaneous (so-called Quincke) rotation of an uncharged, solid, dielectric, spherical particle under a steady uniform electric field is analyzed, accounting for the inertia of the particle and the transient fluid inertia, or “hydrodynamic memory,” due to the unsteady Stokes flow around the particle. The dynamics of the particle are encapsulated in three coupled nonlinear integro-differential equations for the evolution of the angular velocity of the particle, and the components of the induced dipole of the particle that are parallel and transverse to the applied field. These equations represent a generalization of the celebrated Lorenz system. A numerical solution of these ‘modified Lorenz equations’ (MLE) shows that hydrodynamic memory leads to an increase in the threshold field strength for chaotic particle rotation, which is in qualitative agreement with experimental observations. Furthermore, hydrodynamic memory leads to an increase in the range of field strengths where multistability between steady and chaotic rotation occurs. At large field strengths, chaos ceases, and the particle is predicted to execute periodic rotational motion.

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• Chaos
• Electric field effects
• Charged colloids
• Chaos & nonlinear dynamics
• Stokes equations