Self-organization in systems of self-propelled particles

Abstract

We investigate a discrete model consisting of self-propelled particles that obey simple interaction rules. We show that this model can self-organize and exhibit coherent localized solutions in one- and in two-dimensions. In one-dimension, the self-organized solution is a localized flock of finite extent in which the density abruptly drops to zero at the edges. In two-dimensions, we focus on the vortex solution in which the particles rotate around a common center and show that this solution can be obtained from random initial conditions, even in the absence of a confining boundary. Furthermore, we develop a continuum version of our discrete model and demonstrate that the agreement between the discrete and the continuum model is excellent.