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The self-organised motion of vast numbers of creatures in a single direction is a spectacular example of emergent order. We recreate this phenomenon using actuated non-living components. We report here that millimetre-sized tapered rods,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2014-09-23 Nitin Kumar , Harsh Soni , Sriram Ramaswamy , A. K. Sood

We review the observations and the basic laws describing the essential aspects of collective motion -- being one of the most common and spectacular manifestation of coordinated behavior. Our aim is to provide a balanced discussion of the…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2012-08-16 Tamás Vicsek , Anna Zafeiris

We study the emerging collective states in a simple mechanical model of a dense group of self-propelled polar disks with off-centered rotation, confined within a circular arena. Each disk presents self-alignment towards the sum of contact…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2026-04-15 Weizhen Tang , Yating Zheng , Amir Shee , Guozheng Lin , Zhangang Han , Pawel Romanczuk , Cristián Huepe

Spontaneous emergence of correlated states such as flocks and vortices are prime examples of remarkable collective dynamics and self-organization observed in active matter. The formation of globally correlated polar states in geometrically…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-01-10 Bo Zhang , Hang Yuan , Andrey Sokolov , Monica Olvera de la Cruz , Alexey Snezhko

We study the role of hydrodynamic interactions in the collective behaviour of collections of microscopic active particles suspended in a fluid. We introduce a novel calculational framework that allows us to separate the different…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2017-09-06 Natsuhiko Yoshinaga , Tanniemola B. Liverpool

Interacting individuals in complex systems often give rise to coherent motion exhibiting coordinated global structures. Such phenomena are ubiquitously observed in nature, from cell migration, bacterial swarms, animal and insect groups, and…

Neural and Evolutionary Computing · Computer Science 2024-07-17 Dongjo Kim , Jeongsu Lee , Ho-Young Kim

Understanding how microscopic motility shapes emergent collective behaviors is a challenging task in active matter, especially when self-propulsion is regulated by external cues or via quorum-sensing interactions. To address this problem,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2026-04-13 Alberto Dinelli , Pietro Luigi Muzzeddu

Collective motion is ubiquitous in nature; groups of animals, such as fish, birds, and ungulates appear to move as a whole, exhibiting a rich behavioral repertoire that ranges from directed movement to milling to disordered swarming.…

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems · Physics 2024-05-15 Conor Heins , Beren Millidge , Lancelot da Costa , Richard Mann , Karl Friston , Iain Couzin

In active matter systems, self-propelled particles can self-organize to undergo collective motion, leading to persistent dynamical behavior out of equilibrium. In cells, cytoskeletal filaments and motor proteins self-organize into complex…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2020-05-19 Jeffrey M. Moore , Tyler N. Thompson , Matthew A. Glaser , Meredith D. Betterton

Collections of simple, self-propelled colloidal particles exhibit complex, emergent dynamical behavior, with promising applications in microrobotics. When confined within a deformable vesicle, self-propelled rods cluster and align,…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-10-28 Sophie Y. Lee , Philipp W. A. Schönhöfer , Sharon C. Glotzer

Collective migration -- the directed, coordinated motion of many self-propelled agents -- is a fascinating emergent behavior exhibited by active matter that has key functional implications for biological systems. Extensive studies have…

Biological Physics · Physics 2022-06-07 Tapomoy Bhattacharjee , Daniel B. Amchin , Ricard Alert , J. A. Ott , Sujit S. Datta

With the aim of understanding the emergence of collective motion from local interactions of organisms in a "noisy" environment, we study biologically inspired, inherently non-equilibrium models consisting of self-propelled particles. In…

Biological Physics · Physics 2009-10-31 A. Czirok , T. Vicsek

Swimmers and self-propelled particles are physical models for the collective behaviour and motility of a wide variety of living systems, such as bacteria colonies, bird flocks and fish schools. Such artificial active materials are amenable…

The emerging collective motions of swarms of interacting agents are a subject of great interest in application areas ranging from biology to physics and robotics. In this paper, we conduct a careful analysis of the collective dynamics of a…

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems · Physics 2014-09-04 Klementyna Szwaykowska , Luis Mier-y-Teran Romero , Ira B. Schwartz

A wide range of experimental systems including gliding, swarming and swimming bacteria, in-vitro motility assays as well as shaken granular media are commonly described as self-propelled rods. Large ensembles of those entities display a…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2021-01-18 Markus Bär , Robert Großmann , Sebastian Heidenreich , Fernando Peruani

When interacting motile units self-organize into flocks, they realize one of the most robust ordered state found in nature. However, after twenty five years of intense research, the very mechanism controlling the ordering dynamics of both…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2021-10-04 Amélie Chardac , Ludwig A. Hoffmann , Yoann Poupart , Luca Giomi , Denis Bartolo

Flocking, as paradigmatically exemplified by birds, is the coherent collective motion of active agents. As originally conceived, flocking emerges through alignment interactions between the agents. Here, we report that flocking can also…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-07-16 Suchismita Das , Matteo Ciarchi , Ziqi Zhou , Jing Yan , Jie Zhang , Ricard Alert

Mobile microrobots are envisioned to be useful in a wide range of high-impact applications, many of which requiring cohesive group formation to maintain self-bounded swarms in the absence of confining boundaries. Cohesive group formation…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-07-15 Berk Yigit , Yunus Alapan , Metin Sitti

We investigate the collective dynamics of self-propelled particles able to probe and anticipate the orientation of their neighbors. We show that a simple anticipation strategy hinders the emergence of homogeneous flocking patterns. Yet,…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2015-06-23 Alexandre Morin , Jean-Baptiste Caussin , Christophe Eloy , Denis Bartolo

We construct the hydrodynamic theory of coherent collective motion ("flocking") at a solid-liquid interface. The polar order parameter and concentration of a collection of "active" (self-propelled) particles at a planar interface between a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-01-05 Niladri Sarkar , Abhik Basu , John Toner