The LGL (Lighthill–Gueron–Liron) Theorem—historical perspective and critique

The 1970s saw a series of works on the modelling of slender bodies moving in slow flow (Re=0), instigated by the interest to understand the principles underlying the swimming of ciliates and flagellates. It was Lighthill in 1975, who wrote down the first theorem connecting slender body motion and singularities distributions along the centre line. This paper will describe the historical development from the early results through Lighthill's theorem to the Gueron–Liron Theorem, which enables discrete‐cilia modelling, i.e., modelling of a multitude of slender bodies attached to a surface.