The emergence of lines of hierarchy in collective motion of biological systems
The emergence of lines of hierarchy in collective motion of biological systems
Loading...
Files
Publication or External Link
Date
2023-06-29
Authors
Greene, James M.
Tadmor, Eitan
Zhong, Ming
Advisor
Citation
James M Greene et al 2023 Phys. Biol. 20 055001.
Abstract
The emergence of large-scale structures in biological systems, and in particular the formation of
lines of hierarchy, is observed at many scales, from collections of cells to groups of insects to herds
of animals. Motivated by phenomena in chemotaxis and phototaxis, we present a new class of
alignment models that exhibit alignment into lines. The spontaneous formation of such ‘fingers’
can be interpreted as the emergence of leaders and followers in a system of identically interacting
agents. Various numerical examples are provided, which demonstrate emergent behaviors similar
to the ‘fingering’ phenomenon observed in some phototaxis and chemotaxis experiments; this
phenomenon is generally known to be a challenging pattern for existing models to capture. A novel
protocol for pairwise interactions provides a fundamental alignment mechanism by which agents
may form lines of hierarchy across a wide range of biological systems.