Condensed Matter Seminars

One of the most fascinating biological phenomena is the self-organization of individual members of a species moving in unison with one another, forming elegant and coherent aggregation patterns. Schools of fish, flocks of birds and swarms of insects arise in response to external stimuli or by direct interaction, and are able to fulfill tasks much more efficiently than single agents. How do these patterns arise? What are their properties? How are individual characteristics linked to collective behaviors? In this talk we discuss various aspects of biological swarming by investigating a non-linear system of self propelled agents that interact via pairwise attractive and repulsive potentials. We are able to predict distinct aggregation morphologies, such as flocks and vortices, and by utilizing statistical mechanics tools, to relate the interaction potential to the collapsing or dispersing behavior of aggregates as the number of constituents increases. We also discuss passage to the continuum and possible applications of this work to the development of artificial swarming teams.