Criticality and the onset of ordering in the standard Vicsek model

GABRIEL BAGLIETTO; EZEQUIEL V. ALBANO; JULIÁN CANDIA

Interface Focus

The Royal Society

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2012 vol. 2 p. 708 - 714

2042-8898

Experimental observations of animal collective behavior have shown stunning evidence for the emergence of large-scale cooperative phenomena resembling phase transitions in physical systems. Indeed, quantitative studies have found scale-free correlations and critical behavior consistent with the occurrence of continuous, second-order phase transitions. The Standard Vicsek Model (SVM), a minimal model of self-propelled particles in which their tendency to align with each other competes with perturbations controlled by a noise term, appears to capture the essential ingredients of critical flocking phenomena. In this paper, we review recent finite-size scaling and dynamical studies of the SVM, which present a full characterization of the continuous phase transition through dynamical and critical exponents. We also present a complex network analysis of SVM flocks and discuss the onset of ordering in connection with XY-like spin models.