Low rattling: A predictive principle for self-organization in active collectives

Abstract

Shake, rattle, and help each other along In classical statistical mechanics, the deterministic dynamics of a many-body system are replaced by a probabilistic description. Chvykov et al. work toward a similar description for the nonequilibrium self-organization of collectives of active particles. In these systems, continuously input energy drives localized fluctuations, but larger-scale ordering can emerge, such as in the flight of a flock of birds. A key concept in their theory is the importance of rattling, whereby ordered patterns emerge through local collisions between neighbors at specific frequencies. The authors demonstrate this behavior using a set of flapping robots and produce related simulations of the robot behavior. Science , this issue p. 90