Magnetocapillary Swimmers

We present an experiment where three mesoscopic soft ferromag-netic beads are placed onto a liquid surface and submitted to the in-fluence of magnetic fields. A vertical magnetic field creates a repulsion which counterbalances the capillary attraction. We show that the com-petition with a second, oscillating field, deforms the structure in a non reciprocal way. As a consequence, the structure is able to swim. This experiment is fully described in a fluid dynamics video attached to this submission.