Ergodic directional switching in mobile insect groups
Abstract
We obtain a Fokker-Planck equation describing experimental data on the collective motion of locusts. The noise is of internal origin and due to the discrete character and finite number of constituents of the swarm. The stationary probability distribution shows a rich phenomenology including non-monotonic behavior of several order/disorder transition indicators in noise intensity. This complex behavior arises naturally as a result of the randomness in the system. Its counterintuitive character challenges standard interpretations of noise induced transitions and calls for an extension of this theory in order to capture the behavior of certain classes of biologically motivated models. Our results suggest that the collective switches of the group's direction of motion might be due to a random ergodic effect and, as such, they are inherent to group formation.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1008.0209,
title = {Ergodic directional switching in mobile insect groups},
author = {Carlos Escudero and Christian A. Yates and Jerome Buhl and Iain D. Couzin and Radek Erban and Ioannis G. Kevrekidis and Philip K. Maini},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1008.0209},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Physical Review Focus 26, July 2010