Stability of model flocks in turbulent-like flow

Autor: Nidhi Khurana, Nicholas T Ouellette
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2013
Předmět:
Zdroj: New Journal of Physics, Vol 15, Iss 9, p 095015 (2013)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 1367-2630
DOI: 10.1088/1367-2630/15/9/095015
Popis: We report numerical simulations of a simple model of flocking particles in the presence of an uncertain background environment. We consider two types of environmental perturbations: random noise applied separately to each particle, and spatiotemporally correlated ‘noise’ provided by a turbulent-like flow field. The effects of these two types of noise are very different; surprisingly, the applied flow field tends to destroy the global order of the flocking model even for vanishingly small flow amplitudes. Local order, however, is preserved in smaller sub-flocks, although their composition changes dynamically. Our results suggest that realistic perturbations must be considered in assessing the stability of models of collective animal behavior, and that random noise is not a sufficient proxy.
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