Dynamic scaling in natural swarms

Autores
Cavagna, Andrea; Conti, Daniele; Creato, Chiara; Del Castello, Lorenzo; Giardina, Irene; Grigera, Tomás Sebastián; Melillo, Stefania; Parisi, Leonardo; Viale, Massimiliano
Año de publicación
2017
Idioma
inglés
Tipo de recurso
artículo
Estado
versión publicada
Descripción
Collective behaviour in biological systems presents theoretical challenges beyond the borders of classical statistical physics. The lack of concepts such as scaling and renormalization is particularly problematic, as it forces us to negotiate details whose relevance is often hard to assess. In an attempt to improve this situation, we present here experimental evidence of the emergence of dynamic scaling laws in natural swarms of midges. We find that spatio-temporal correlation functions in different swarms can be rescaled by using a single characteristic time, which grows with the correlation length with a dynamical critical exponent z ≈ 1, a value not found in any other standard statistical model. To check whether out-of-equilibrium effects may be responsible for this anomalous exponent, we run simulations of the simplest model of self-propelled particles and find z ≈ 2, suggesting that natural swarms belong to a novel dynamic universality class. This conclusion is strengthened by experimental evidence of the presence of non-dissipative modes in the relaxation, indicating that previously overlooked inertial effects are needed to describe swarm dynamics. The absence of a purely dissipative regime suggests that natural swarms undergo a near-critical censorship of hydrodynamics. Swarms and statistical physics seem like natural bedfellows, but concepts like scaling are yet to prove directly applicable to insect group dynamics. A study of midges suggests they are, and that they may give rise to a new universality class.
Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos
Materia
Física
Nivel de accesibilidad
acceso abierto
Condiciones de uso
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Repositorio
SEDICI (UNLP)
Institución
Universidad Nacional de La Plata
OAI Identificador
oai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/124265

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spelling Dynamic scaling in natural swarmsCavagna, AndreaConti, DanieleCreato, ChiaraDel Castello, LorenzoGiardina, IreneGrigera, Tomás SebastiánMelillo, StefaniaParisi, LeonardoViale, MassimilianoFísicaCollective behaviour in biological systems presents theoretical challenges beyond the borders of classical statistical physics. The lack of concepts such as scaling and renormalization is particularly problematic, as it forces us to negotiate details whose relevance is often hard to assess. In an attempt to improve this situation, we present here experimental evidence of the emergence of dynamic scaling laws in natural swarms of midges. We find that spatio-temporal correlation functions in different swarms can be rescaled by using a single characteristic time, which grows with the correlation length with a dynamical critical exponent z ≈ 1, a value not found in any other standard statistical model. To check whether out-of-equilibrium effects may be responsible for this anomalous exponent, we run simulations of the simplest model of self-propelled particles and find z ≈ 2, suggesting that natural swarms belong to a novel dynamic universality class. This conclusion is strengthened by experimental evidence of the presence of non-dissipative modes in the relaxation, indicating that previously overlooked inertial effects are needed to describe swarm dynamics. The absence of a purely dissipative regime suggests that natural swarms undergo a near-critical censorship of hydrodynamics. Swarms and statistical physics seem like natural bedfellows, but concepts like scaling are yet to prove directly applicable to insect group dynamics. A study of midges suggests they are, and that they may give rise to a new universality class.Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos2017-06-19info:eu-repo/semantics/articleinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersionArticulohttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_6501info:ar-repo/semantics/articuloapplication/pdf914-918http://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/handle/10915/124265enginfo:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1745-2473info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1745-2481info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/arxiv/1611.08201info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nphys4153info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccesshttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)reponame:SEDICI (UNLP)instname:Universidad Nacional de La Platainstacron:UNLP2025-09-29T11:29:24Zoai:sedici.unlp.edu.ar:10915/124265Institucionalhttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/Universidad públicaNo correspondehttp://sedici.unlp.edu.ar/oai/snrdalira@sedici.unlp.edu.arArgentinaNo correspondeNo correspondeNo correspondeopendoar:13292025-09-29 11:29:24.769SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Platafalse
dc.title.none.fl_str_mv Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
title Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
spellingShingle Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
Cavagna, Andrea
Física
title_short Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
title_full Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
title_fullStr Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
title_full_unstemmed Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
title_sort Dynamic scaling in natural swarms
dc.creator.none.fl_str_mv Cavagna, Andrea
Conti, Daniele
Creato, Chiara
Del Castello, Lorenzo
Giardina, Irene
Grigera, Tomás Sebastián
Melillo, Stefania
Parisi, Leonardo
Viale, Massimiliano
author Cavagna, Andrea
author_facet Cavagna, Andrea
Conti, Daniele
Creato, Chiara
Del Castello, Lorenzo
Giardina, Irene
Grigera, Tomás Sebastián
Melillo, Stefania
Parisi, Leonardo
Viale, Massimiliano
author_role author
author2 Conti, Daniele
Creato, Chiara
Del Castello, Lorenzo
Giardina, Irene
Grigera, Tomás Sebastián
Melillo, Stefania
Parisi, Leonardo
Viale, Massimiliano
author2_role author
author
author
author
author
author
author
author
dc.subject.none.fl_str_mv Física
topic Física
dc.description.none.fl_txt_mv Collective behaviour in biological systems presents theoretical challenges beyond the borders of classical statistical physics. The lack of concepts such as scaling and renormalization is particularly problematic, as it forces us to negotiate details whose relevance is often hard to assess. In an attempt to improve this situation, we present here experimental evidence of the emergence of dynamic scaling laws in natural swarms of midges. We find that spatio-temporal correlation functions in different swarms can be rescaled by using a single characteristic time, which grows with the correlation length with a dynamical critical exponent z ≈ 1, a value not found in any other standard statistical model. To check whether out-of-equilibrium effects may be responsible for this anomalous exponent, we run simulations of the simplest model of self-propelled particles and find z ≈ 2, suggesting that natural swarms belong to a novel dynamic universality class. This conclusion is strengthened by experimental evidence of the presence of non-dissipative modes in the relaxation, indicating that previously overlooked inertial effects are needed to describe swarm dynamics. The absence of a purely dissipative regime suggests that natural swarms undergo a near-critical censorship of hydrodynamics. Swarms and statistical physics seem like natural bedfellows, but concepts like scaling are yet to prove directly applicable to insect group dynamics. A study of midges suggests they are, and that they may give rise to a new universality class.
Instituto de Física de Líquidos y Sistemas Biológicos
description Collective behaviour in biological systems presents theoretical challenges beyond the borders of classical statistical physics. The lack of concepts such as scaling and renormalization is particularly problematic, as it forces us to negotiate details whose relevance is often hard to assess. In an attempt to improve this situation, we present here experimental evidence of the emergence of dynamic scaling laws in natural swarms of midges. We find that spatio-temporal correlation functions in different swarms can be rescaled by using a single characteristic time, which grows with the correlation length with a dynamical critical exponent z ≈ 1, a value not found in any other standard statistical model. To check whether out-of-equilibrium effects may be responsible for this anomalous exponent, we run simulations of the simplest model of self-propelled particles and find z ≈ 2, suggesting that natural swarms belong to a novel dynamic universality class. This conclusion is strengthened by experimental evidence of the presence of non-dissipative modes in the relaxation, indicating that previously overlooked inertial effects are needed to describe swarm dynamics. The absence of a purely dissipative regime suggests that natural swarms undergo a near-critical censorship of hydrodynamics. Swarms and statistical physics seem like natural bedfellows, but concepts like scaling are yet to prove directly applicable to insect group dynamics. A study of midges suggests they are, and that they may give rise to a new universality class.
publishDate 2017
dc.date.none.fl_str_mv 2017-06-19
dc.type.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/article
info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion
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dc.language.none.fl_str_mv eng
language eng
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info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/issn/1745-2481
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/arxiv/1611.08201
info:eu-repo/semantics/altIdentifier/doi/10.1038/nphys4153
dc.rights.none.fl_str_mv info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
eu_rights_str_mv openAccess
rights_invalid_str_mv http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
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914-918
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repository.name.fl_str_mv SEDICI (UNLP) - Universidad Nacional de La Plata
repository.mail.fl_str_mv alira@sedici.unlp.edu.ar
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