Effects of heterogeneous social interactions on flocking dynamics

TL;DR

This study investigates how social network heterogeneity influences flocking behavior, revealing that more heterogeneous social contacts enhance the resilience of collective motion against noise, challenging previous assumptions about model equivalences.

Contribution

It introduces a variation of the Vicsek model with a scale-free social contact topology, demonstrating the impact of network heterogeneity on flocking dynamics and stability.

Findings

More heterogeneous networks exhibit more resilient ordered states.

Less heterogeneity results in fragile ordered states vulnerable to noise.

Challenges the equivalence between the Vicsek and XY models on social networks.

Abstract

Social relationships characterize the interactions that occur within social species and may have an important impact on collective animal motion. Here, we consider a variation of the standard Vicsek model for collective motion in which interactions are mediated by an empirically motivated scale-free topology that represents a heterogeneous pattern of social contacts. We observe that the degree of order of the model is strongly affected by network heterogeneity: more heterogeneous networks show a more resilient ordered state; while less heterogeneity leads to a more fragile ordered state that can be destroyed by sufficient external noise. Our results challenge the previously accepted equivalence between the {\em static} Vicsek model and the equilibrium XY model on the network of connections, and point towards a possible equivalence with models exhibiting a different symmetry.