Similarities between Insect Swarms and Isothermal Globular Clusters

TL;DR

This paper compares insect swarms to isothermal globular clusters using the King model, showing adaptive gravity effectively models swarm density profiles and highlighting differences caused by adaptivity and repulsion.

Contribution

It demonstrates that the King model, combined with adaptive gravity, accurately describes insect swarm density profiles, advancing the understanding of swarm dynamics.

Findings

King model captures key features of swarm density profiles

Adaptive gravity explains deviations from classic models

Short-range repulsion influences swarm structure

Abstract

Previous work has suggested that disordered swarms of flying insects can be well modeled as self-gravitating systems, as long as the "gravitational" interaction is adaptive. Motivated by this work we compare the predictions of the classic, mean-field King model for isothermal globular clusters to observations of insect swarms. Detailed numerical simulations of regular and adaptive gravity allow us to expose the features of the swarms' density profiles that are captured by the King model phenomenology, and those that are due to adaptivity and short-range repulsion. Our results provide further support for adaptive gravity as a model for swarms.