Optimal noise maximizes collective motion in heterogeneous media.

We study the effect of spatial heterogeneity on the collective motion of self-propelled particles (SPPs). The heterogeneity is modeled as a random distribution of either static or diffusive obstacles, which the SPPs avoid while trying to align their movements. We find that such obstacles have a dramatic effect on the collective dynamics of usual SPP models. In particular, we report about the existence of an optimal (angular) noise amplitude that maximizes collective motion. We also show that while at low obstacle densities the system exhibits long-range order, in strongly heterogeneous media collective motion is quasi-long-range and exists only for noise values in between two critical values, with the system being disordered at both large and low noise amplitudes. Since most real systems have spatial heterogeneities, the finding of an optimal noise intensity has immediate practical and fundamental implications for the design and evolution of collective motion strategies.

• Publication year

  2013

• Venue

  Physical Review Letters

• Publication date

  2013-05-24

• Fields of study

  Medicine, Physics

• Identifiers
  DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.110.238101arXiv 1305.5707PMID 25167531
• External record

  Open on Semantic Scholar

• Source metadata

  Semantic Scholar, PubMed

• No claims are published for this paper.

• No concepts are published for this paper.

• I and J

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