Collective effects in traffic on bi-directional ant-trails

TL;DR

This paper introduces a bi-directional ant-traffic model that reveals unique collective behaviors and flow characteristics, differing significantly from vehicular traffic, with predictions that can be experimentally tested.

Contribution

It presents a simple yet effective model capturing key collective features of bi-directional ant traffic, highlighting qualitative differences from vehicular traffic and predicting novel flow behaviors.

Findings

Flow rate can remain constant over certain densities.

Non-monotonic velocity-density relationship observed.

Distinct qualitative differences from vehicular traffic.

Abstract

Motivated by recent experimental work of Burd et al., we propose a model of bi-directional ant-traffic on pre-existing ant-trails. It captures in a simple way some of the generic collective features of movements of real ants on a trail. Analyzing this model, we demonstrate that there are crucial qualitative differences between vehicular- and ant-traffics. In particular, we predict some unusual features of the flow rate that can be tested experimentally. As in the uni-directional model a non-monotonic density-dependence of the average velocity can be observed in certain parameter regimes. As a consequence of the interaction between oppositely moving ants the flow rate can become approximately constant over some density interval.