Effects of Heterogeneous Social Interactions on Flocking Dynamics

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Complex Systems
• Network Science

Background:

• Social relationships are crucial for collective animal motion.
• The standard Vicsek model describes collective motion but often assumes homogeneous interactions.
• Empirical data suggests social contacts can be heterogeneous, following scale-free network topologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how network heterogeneity, representing varied social contacts, influences collective animal motion.
• To explore the resilience of ordered motion in a modified Vicsek model with scale-free topology.
• To challenge existing theoretical equivalences in collective motion models.

Main Methods:

• A variation of the Vicsek model was used.
• Interactions were mediated by an empirically motivated scale-free network topology.
• The impact of network heterogeneity on the degree of order and resilience to noise was analyzed.

Main Results:

• Network heterogeneity significantly affects the degree of order in collective motion.
• More heterogeneous networks exhibit a more resilient ordered state.
• Less heterogeneous networks lead to a more fragile ordered state, susceptible to external noise.

Conclusions:

• The findings challenge the established equivalence between the static Vicsek model and the equilibrium XY model on networks.
• Network heterogeneity plays a critical role in the stability of collective motion.
• Results suggest a potential equivalence with models possessing different symmetry properties.