A New Model for the Collective Behavior of Animals

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new model for animal collective behavior, demonstrating phase transitions between disordered, flocking, and runaway states driven by noise levels, using Monte Carlo simulations.

Contribution

It presents a novel model incorporating internal and external states of animals and identifies phase transitions in collective behavior due to noise.

Findings

Three distinct behavioral phases identified: uncollected, flocking, and runaway.

Phase transitions are first-order and depend on noise levels.

Model captures key features of animal group dynamics.

Abstract

We propose a new model in order to study behaviors of self-organized system such as a group of animals. We assume that the individuals have two degrees of freedom corresponding one to their internal state and the other to their external state. The external state is characterized by its moving orientation. The rule of the interaction between the individuals is determined by the internal state which can be either in the non-excited state or in the excited state. The system is put under a source of external perturbation called "noise". To study the behavior of the model with varying noise, we use the Monte-Carlo simulation technique. The result clearly shows two first-order transitions separating the system into three phases: with increasing noise, the system undergoes a phase transition from a dilute disordered phase to an ordered compact phase and then to the disordered dispersed phase. These phases correspond to behaviors of animals: uncollected state at low noise, flocking at medium noise and runaway at high noise, respectively.