Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-2014
Department 1
Physics
Abstract
Collective animal behaviour is often modeled by systems of agents that interact via effective social forces, including short-range repulsion and long-range attraction. We search for evidence of such effective forces by studying laboratory swarms of the flying midge Chironomus riparius. Using multi-camera stereoimaging and particle-tracking techniques, we record three-dimensional trajectories for all the individuals in the swarm. Acceleration measurements show a clear short-range repulsion, which we confirm by considering the spatial statistics of the midges, but no conclusive long-range interactions. Measurements of the mean free path of the insects also suggest that individuals are on average very weakly coupled, but that they are also tightly bound to the swarm itself. Our results therefore suggest that some attractive interaction maintains cohesion of the swarms, but that this interaction is not as simple as an attraction to nearest neighbours.
Copyright Note
This is the publisher's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution.
DOI
10.1038/srep04766
Recommended Citation
Puckett, James G., Douglas H. Kelley and Nicholas T. Ouellette. "Searching for Effective Forces in Laboratory Insect Swarms." Scientific Reports 4:4766 (April 2014).
Required Publisher's Statement
Original version is available from the publisher at: http://www.nature.com/srep/2014/140423/srep04766/full/srep04766.html
Included in
Biological and Chemical Physics Commons, Statistical, Nonlinear, and Soft Matter Physics Commons