SKM 2023 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 31: Focus Session: From Inter-individual Variability to Heterogeneous Group Dynamics and Disorder in Active Matter (joint session DY/BP/CPP)

CPP 31.2: Invited Talk

Wednesday, March 29, 2023, 10:00–10:30, ZEU 160

Variability and heterogeneity in natural swarms — •Gil Ariel — Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

Collective motion of large-scale natural swarms, such as moving animal groups or expanding bacterial colonies, have been described as self-organized phenomena. Thus, it is clear that the observed macroscopic, coarse-grained swarm dynamics depend on the properties of the individuals of which it is composed. In nature, individuals are never identical, and may differ in practically every parameter. Hence, intra-group variability and its effect on the ability to form coordinated motion is of interest, both from theoretical and a biological points of view. In this talk, I will review and examine some of the fundamental properties of heterogeneous collectives in nature, with an emphasis on two widely-used model organisms - swarming bacteria and locusts. Theoretical attempts to explain the observed phenomena will be discussed in view of laboratory experiments, highlighting their successes and failures. While heterogeneity typically discourages collectivity, there are several natural examples where it has an opposite effect.