title: Phase transitions and bistability in honeybee foraging dynamics.
abstract: Many physical and biological systems display phase transitions, where a slight change in a parameter greatly changes the behavior of the system; and bistability, where for a certain range of this parameter either of two phases can be obtained, depending on initial conditions. We suggest the presence of these phenomena in a model of foraging honeybees. The eventual number of foragers depends in a complex way on the bee concentration and on the scouting rate. The results hold relevance for other multi-agent systems with potential jumps in system behavior or efficiency, depending on agent concentration.
authors.affiliation: School of Computing, University of Paisley, Paisley PA1 2BE, Scotland. Andreas.Loengarov@uws.ac.uk
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Loengarov
authors.forename: Valery
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tereshko
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000502:physiology*; D003198:Computer Simulation; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D008954:Models, Biological