title: Collective dynamics of soft active particles.
abstract: We present a model of soft active particles that leads to a rich array of collective behavior found also in dense biological swarms of bacteria and other unicellular organisms. Our model uses only local interactions, such as Vicsek-type nearest-neighbor alignment, short-range repulsion, and a local boundary term. Changing the relative strength of these interactions leads to migrating swarms, rotating swarms, and jammed swarms, as well as swarms that exhibit run-and-tumble motion, alternating between migration and either rotating or jammed states. Interestingly, although a migrating swarm moves slower than an individual particle, the diffusion constant can be up to three orders of magnitude larger, suggesting that collective motion can be highly advantageous, for example, when searching for food.
authors: Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors: Ruben
authors: R
authors: van Drongelen
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors: Anshuman
authors: A
authors: Pal
authors: Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.
authors: Carl P
authors: CP
authors: Goodrich
authors: Department of Bionanoscience, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands.
authors: Timon
authors: T
authors: Idema
mesh_terms: D004023:Dictyostelium / Q000502:physiology; D004058:Diffusion; D055595:Mechanical Phenomena; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009038:Motion; D009068:Movement; D009231:Myxococcales / Q000502:physiology; D012399:Rotation