title: Competing ferromagnetic and nematic alignment in self-propelled polar particles.
abstract: We study a Vicsek-style model of self-propelled particles where ferromagnetic and nematic alignment compete in both the usual "metric" version and in the "metric-free" case where a particle interacts with its Voronoi neighbors. We show that the phase diagram of this out-of-equilibrium XY model is similar to that of its equilibrium counterpart: The properties of the fully nematic model, studied before by Ginelli et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 184502 (2010)], are thus robust to the introduction of a modest bias of interactions toward ferromagnetic alignment. The direct transitions between polar and nematic ordered phases are shown to be discontinuous in the metric case, and continuous, belonging to the Ising universality class, in the metric-free version.
authors.affiliation: Service de Physique de l'État Condensé, CEA-Saclay, F-91191 Gif-sur-Yvette, France.
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ngo
authors.forename: Francesco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ginelli
authors.forename: Hugues
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Chaté
mesh_terms: D003198:Computer Simulation; D050866:Liquid Crystals / Q000737:chemistry*; D060526:Magnetic Fields; D008956:Models, Chemical; D008958:Models, Molecular; D008968:Molecular Conformation; D010316:Particle Size; D055672:Static Electricity