English

Dipole interactions in doubly-periodic domains

Biological Physics 2013-04-26 v1 Pattern Formation and Solitons

Abstract

We consider the interactions of finite dipoles in a doubly-periodic domain. A finite dipole is a pair of equal and opposite strength point vortices separated by a finite distance. The dynamics of multiple finite dipoles in an unbounded inviscid uid was first proposed by Tchieu, Kanso & Newton in [1] as a model that captures the "far- field" hydrodynamic interactions in fish schools. In this paper, we formulate the equations of motion governing the dynamics of finite-dipoles in a doubly-periodic domain. We show that a single dipole in a doubly-periodic domain exhibits periodic and aperiodic behavior, in contrast to a single dipole in an unbounded domain. In the case of two dipoles in doubly-periodic domain, we identify a number of interesting trajectories including collision, collision avoidance, and passive synchronization of the dipoles. We then examine two types of dipole lattices: rectangular and diamond. We verify that these lattices are in a state of relative equilibrium and show that the rectangular lattice is unstable while the diamond lattice is linearly stable for a range of perturbations. We conclude by commenting on the insights these models provide in the context of fish schooling.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1304.6795,
  title  = {Dipole interactions in doubly-periodic domains},
  author = {Alan Cheng Hou Tsang and Eva Kanso},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1304.6795},
  year   = {2013}
}
R2 v1 2026-06-22T00:06:02.892Z