Tamás Vicsek, Anna Zafeiris
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 various facets of this highly multidisciplinary field,
including experiments, mathematical methods and models for simulations, so that
readers with a variety of background could get both the basics and a broader,
more detailed picture of the field. The observations we report on include
systems consisting of units ranging from macromolecules through metallic rods
and robots to groups of animals and people. Some emphasis is put on models that
are simple and realistic enough to reproduce the numerous related observations
and are useful for developing concepts for a better understanding of the
complexity of systems consisting of many simultaneously moving entities. As
such, these models allow the establishing of a few fundamental principles of
flocking. In particular, it is demonstrated, that in spite of considerable
differences, a number of deep analogies exist between equilibrium statistical
physics systems and those made of self-propelled (in most cases living) units.
In both cases only a few well defined macroscopic/collective states occur and
the transitions between these states follow a similar scenario, involving
discontinuity and algebraic divergences.
View original:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1010.5017
No comments:
Post a Comment