English

Onset of collective and cohesive motion

Statistical Mechanics 2013-11-15 v1

Abstract

We study the onset of collective motion, with and without cohesion, of groups of noisy self-propelled particles interacting locally. We find that this phase transition, in two space dimensions, is always discontinuous, including for the minimal model of Vicsek et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 75},1226 (1995)] for which a non-trivial critical point was previously advocated. We also show that cohesion is always lost near onset, as a result of the interplay of density, velocity, and shape fluctuations.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.cond-mat/0401208,
  title  = {Onset of collective and cohesive motion},
  author = {G Gregoire and H Chate},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/0401208},
  year   = {2013}
}

Comments

accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett