Work

Bird Flocks as Condensed Matter

Year: 2014

Type: review

Abstract: Flocking is a paradigmatic case of self-organized collective behavior in biology and a living example of active matter. Several models and theories have been developed in recent years to address these kinds of systems. However, unlike granular materials and biological systems at the microscale, experiments have been scarce until recently, preventing the necessary comparison between theory and data. In this review, we discuss a novel approach to flocking, in which experimental data are used as a starting point to empirically characterize flocking as a collective phenomenon—as the term is understood in statistical and condensed matter physics—and build models directly from the data.

Source: Annual Review of Condensed Matter Physics

DOI: 10.1146/annurev-conmatphys-031113-133834

Authors: Andrea Cavagna, Irene Giardina

Institutions: Institute for Complex Systems, National Research Council, Sapienza University of Rome

Language: English

Topic: Distributed Control Multi-Agent Systems

Subfield: Computer Networks and Communications

Field: Computer Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: bronze

Funders: Air Force Office of Scientific Research, FP7 Ideas: European Research Council

Award: Empirical analysis and theoretical modelling of self-organized collective behaviour in three-dimensions: from insect swarms and bird flocks to new schemes of distributed coordination