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Testing A Thermodynamic Approach To Collective Animal Behavior In Laboratory Fish Schools, Julia A. Giannini, James G. Puckett

Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications

Collective behaviors displayed by groups of social animals are observed frequently in nature. Understanding and predicting the behavior of complex biological systems is dependent on developing effective descriptions and models. While collective animal systems are characteristically nonequilibrium, we can employ concepts from equilibrium statistical mechanics to motivate the measurement of material-like properties in laboratory animal aggregates. Here, we present results from a new set of experiments that utilize high speed footage of two-dimensional schooling events, particle tracking, and projected static and dynamic light fields to observe and control the behavior of negatively phototaxic fish schools (Hemigrammus bleheri). First, …