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Full-Text Articles in Physics
Testing A Thermodynamic Approach To Collective Animal Behavior In Laboratory Fish Schools, Julia A. Giannini, James G. Puckett
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, …
Similarities Between Insect Swarms And Isothermal Globular Clusters, Dan Gorbonos, Kasper Van Der Vaart, Michael Sinhuber, James G. Puckett, Andrew M. Reynolds, Nicholas T. Ouellette, Nir S. Gov
Similarities Between Insect Swarms And Isothermal Globular Clusters, Dan Gorbonos, Kasper Van Der Vaart, Michael Sinhuber, James G. Puckett, Andrew M. Reynolds, Nicholas T. Ouellette, Nir S. Gov
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
Previous work has suggested that disordered swarms of flying insects can be well modeled as self-gravitating systems, as long as the “gravitational” interaction is adaptive. Motivated by this work, we compare the predictions of the classic, mean-field King model for isothermal globular clusters to observations of insect swarms. Detailed numerical simulations of regular and adaptive gravity allow us to expose the features of the swarms' density and velocity profiles that are due to long-range interactions and are captured by the King model phenomenology, and those that are due to adaptivity and short-range repulsion. Our results provide further support for adaptive …
Three-Dimensional Time-Resolved Trajectories From Laboratory Insect Swarms, Michael Sinhuber, Kasper Van Der Vaart, Rui Ni, James G. Puckett, Douglas H. Kelley, Nicholas T. Ouellette
Three-Dimensional Time-Resolved Trajectories From Laboratory Insect Swarms, Michael Sinhuber, Kasper Van Der Vaart, Rui Ni, James G. Puckett, Douglas H. Kelley, Nicholas T. Ouellette
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
Aggregations of animals display complex and dynamic behaviour, both at the individual level and on the level of the group as a whole. Often, this behaviour is collective, so that the group exhibits properties that are distinct from those of the individuals. In insect swarms, the motion of individuals is typically convoluted, and swarms display neither net polarization nor correlation. The swarms themselves, however, remain nearly stationary and maintain their cohesion even in noisy natural environments. This behaviour stands in contrast with other forms of collective animal behaviour, such as flocking, schooling, or herding, where the motion of individuals is …
Collective Gradient Sensing In Fish Schools, James G. Puckett, Aawaz R. Pokhrel, Julia A. Giannini
Collective Gradient Sensing In Fish Schools, James G. Puckett, Aawaz R. Pokhrel, Julia A. Giannini
Physics and Astronomy Faculty Publications
Throughout the animal kingdom, animals frequently benefit from living in groups. Models of collective behaviour show that simple local interactions are sufficient to generate group morphologies found in nature (swarms, flocks and mills). However, individuals also interact with the complex noisy environment in which they live. In this work, we experimentally investigate the group performance in navigating a noisy light gradient of two unrelated freshwater species: golden shiners (Notemigonuscrysoleucas) and rummy nose tetra (Hemigrammus bleheri). We find that tetras outperform shiners due to their innate individual ability to sense the environmental gradient. Using numerical simulations, we examine how group performance …