Turning with the others: novel transitions in an SPP model with coupling of accelerations

TL;DR

This paper extends the SPP model to include acceleration effects, revealing a phase transition influenced by a parameter that balances velocity and acceleration, with implications for natural evolutionary strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized 3D SPP model incorporating acceleration, demonstrating a phase transition controlled by a new influence parameter, s.

Findings

Disordered motion below critical s

Ordered, SPP-like behavior above critical s

Evolutionary processes may optimize s for maximal information exchange

Abstract

We consider a three dimensional, generalized version of the original SPP model for collective motion. By extending the factors influencing the ordering, we investigate the case when the movement of the self-propelled particles (SPP-s) depends on both the velocity and the acceleration of the neighboring particles, instead of being determined solely by the former one. By changing the value of a weight parameter s determining the relative influence of the velocity and the acceleration terms, the system undergoes a kinetic phase transition as a function of a behavioral pattern. Below a critical value of s the system exhibits disordered motion, while above it the dynamics resembles that of the SPP model. We argue that in nature evolutionary processes can drive the strategy variable s towards the critical point, where information exchange between the units of a system is maximal.