Intrinsic and extrinsic noise effects on the phase transition of swarming systems and related network models

TL;DR

This paper investigates how intrinsic and extrinsic noise influence phase transitions in network models related to collective motion, revealing that intrinsic noise causes continuous transitions while extrinsic noise leads to discontinuous ones, even in small-world networks.

Contribution

It provides analytical and numerical evidence that intrinsic and extrinsic noise types produce different phase transition behaviors in network models of swarming systems.

Findings

Intrinsic noise causes continuous phase transitions.

Extrinsic noise results in discontinuous phase transitions.

Mixed noise types can lead to either transition type depending on their amplitudes.

Abstract

We analyze order-disorder phase transitions driven by noise that occur in two kinds of network models closely related to the self-propelled model proposed by Vicsek et. al. to describe the collective motion of groups of organisms [\emph{Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 75}:1226 (1995)]. Two different types of noise, which we call intrinsic and extrinsic, are considered. The intrinsic noise, the one used by Vicsek et. al. in their original work, is related to the decision mechanism through which the particles update their positions. In contrast, the extrinsic noise, later introduced by Gr\'egoire and Chat\'e [\emph{Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 92}:025702 (2004)], affects the signal that the particles receive from the environment. The network models presented here can be considered as the mean-field representation of the self-propelled model. We show analytically and numerically that, for these two network models, the phase transitions driven by the intrinsic noise are continuous, whereas the extrinsic noise produces discontinuous phase transitions. This is true even for the small-world topology, which induces strong spatial correlations between the network elements. We also analyze the case where both types of noise are present simultaneously. In this situation, the phase transition can be continuous or discontinuous depending upon the amplitude of each type of noise.