A biologically-motivated system is poised at a critical state

TL;DR

This paper investigates how a biologically-inspired system, modeled with quorum response interactions and vigilance levels, can be tuned to operate at a critical state, revealing phase transitions in information transfer dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a model combining quorum response and Gaussian-distributed vigilance levels to demonstrate criticality in information transfer within biological systems.

Findings

System can be tuned to critical state by adjusting Gaussian parameters.

Phase diagrams show clear division between super-critical and sub-critical zones.

Information transfer dynamics vary significantly across phase boundary.

Abstract

We explore the critical behaviors in the dynamics of information transfer of a biologically-inspired system by an individual-based model. "Quorum response", a type of social interaction which has been recognized taxonomically in animal groups, is applied as the sole interaction rule among particles. We assume a truncated Gaussian distribution to quantitatively depict the distribution of the particles' vigilance level and find that by fine-tuning the parameters of the mean and the standard deviation of the Gaussian distribution, the system is poised at a critical state in the dynamics of information transfer. We present the phase diagrams to exhibit that the phase line divides the parameter space into a super-critical and a sub-critical zone, in which the dynamics of information transfer varies largely.