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Related papers: Flocking at a distance in active granular matter

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Asymmetric obstacles can be exploited to direct the motion and induce sorting of run-and-tumbling particles. In this work, we show that flocking particles which follow the Vicsek model aligning rules experience a collective trapping in the…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2019-12-02 Raul Martinez , Francisco Alarcon , Juan Luis Aragones , Chantal Valeriani

Coherently moving flocks of birds, beasts or bacteria are examples of living matter with spontaneous orientational order. How do these systems differ from thermal equilibrium systems with such liquid-crystalline order? Working with a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2011-11-09 Vijay Narayan , Sriram Ramaswamy , Narayanan Menon

We present the hydrodynamic theory of coherent collective motion ("flocking") at a solid-liquid interface, and many of its predictions for experiment. We find that such systems are stable, and have long-range orientational order, over a…

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

Coherent collective motion is a widely observed phenomenon in active matter systems. Here, we report a flocking transition mechanism in a system of chemically interacting active colloidal particles sustained purely by chemo-repulsive…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2025-11-04 Arvin Gopal Subramaniam , Sagarika Adhikary , Rajesh Singh

Synchronization, the temporal coordination of coupled oscillators, allows fireflies to flash in unison, neurons to fire collectively and human crowds to fall in step on the London Millenium bridge. Here, we interpret active (or…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2019-10-02 Demian Levis , Ignacio Pagonabarraga , Benno Liebchen

Using a minimal aggregation-based model, we address the efficient information transfer observed in natural flocks during collective turns. Specifically, we demonstrate that this feature can arise solely from the non-reciprocal nature of…

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems · Physics 2025-11-25 Joao Lizárraga , Marcus de Aguiar

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

Flocking is a fascinating phenomenon observed across a wide range of living organisms. We investigate, based on a simple self-propelled particle model, how the emergence of ordered motion in a collectively moving group is influenced by the…

Biological Physics · Physics 2024-06-04 Vijay Kumar , Rumi De

While the collective motion of active particles has been studied extensively, effective strategies to navigate particle swarms without external guidance remain elusive. We introduce a method to control the trajectories of two-dimensional…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-08-28 Sophie Y. Lee , Philipp W. A. Schönhöfer , Sharon C. Glotzer

Within a simple model of attractive active Brownian particles, we predict flocking behavior and challenge the widespread idea that alignment interactions are necessary to observe this collective phenomenon. Here, we show that even…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-04-19 Lorenzo Caprini , Hartmut Löwen

Vertically vibrated rod-shaped granular materials confined to quasi-2D containers self organize into distinct patterns. We find, consistent with theory and simulation, a density dependent isotropic-nematic transition. Along the walls, rods…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2009-11-11 J. Galanis , D. Harries , D. L. Sackett , W. Losert , R. Nossal

In this paper we study the emergence of coherence in collective motion described by a system of interacting motiles endowed with an inner, adaptative, steering mechanism. By means of a nonlinear parametric coupling, the system elements are…

Chaotic Dynamics · Physics 2015-05-19 Anselmo Garcia Cantu Ros , Chris Antonopoulos , Vasileios Basios

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

We show from experiments and simulations on vibration-activated granular matter that self-propelled polar rods in an elastic medium on a substrate turn and move towards each other. We account for this effective attraction through a…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2022-06-08 Rahul Kumar Gupta , Raushan Kant , Harsh Soni , A. K. Sood , Sriram Ramaswamy

Non-equilibrium collective behavior of self-propelled colloidal rods in a confining channel is studied using Brownian dynamics simulations and dynamical density functional theory. We observe an aggregation process in which rods…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2013-06-06 H. H. Wensink , H. Löwen

One of the most well known features of active matter is the tendencey of self-propelled particles to undergo system-wide collective motion. With low enough rotational noise or high enough global density, these systems spontaneously break…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-06-21 Caleb J. Anderson Olivier Dauchot , Alberto Fernandez-Nieves

Collective motion - or flocking - is an emergent phenomena that underlies many biological processes of relevance, from cellular migrations to animal groups movement. In this work, we derive scaling relations for the fluctuations of the mean…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2023-02-13 Martino Brambati , Giuseppe Fava , Francesco Ginelli

When particles move at a constant speed and have the tendency to align their directions of motion, ordered large scale movement can emerge despite significant levels of noise. Many variants of this model of self-propelled particles have…

Biological Physics · Physics 2012-12-11 Matthias Meschede , Oskar Hallatschek

Two hallmarks of non-equilibrium systems, from active colloids to animal herds, are agents motility and nonreciprocal interactions. Their interplay creates feedback loops leading to complex spatiotemporal dynamics crucial to understand and…

Statistical Mechanics · Physics 2025-09-17 David Martin , Daniel Seara , Yael Avni , Michel Fruchart , Vincenzo Vitelli

Ordered, collective motions commonly arise spontaneously in systems of many interacting, active units, ranging from cellular tissues and bacterial colonies to self-propelled colloids and animal flocks. Active phases are especially rich when…

Soft Condensed Matter · Physics 2024-07-15 Madhuvanthi Guruprasad Athani , Daniel A. Beller