Spin-Waves without Spin-Waves: A Case for Soliton Propagation in Starling Flocks

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Cavagna, Andrea, Cimino, Guido, Cristín, Javier, Fiorini, Matteo, Giardina, Irene, Giustiniani, Angelo, Grigera, Tomás S., Melillo, Stefania, Palombella, Roberto A., Parisi, Leonardo, Ponno, Antonio, Scandolo, Mattia, Stamler, Zachary S.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Cavagna, Andrea
Cimino, Guido
Cristín, Javier
Fiorini, Matteo
Giardina, Irene
Giustiniani, Angelo
Grigera, Tomás S.
Melillo, Stefania
Palombella, Roberto A.
Parisi, Leonardo
Ponno, Antonio
Scandolo, Mattia
Stamler, Zachary S.
author_facet Cavagna, Andrea
Cimino, Guido
Cristín, Javier
Fiorini, Matteo
Giardina, Irene
Giustiniani, Angelo
Grigera, Tomás S.
Melillo, Stefania
Palombella, Roberto A.
Parisi, Leonardo
Ponno, Antonio
Scandolo, Mattia
Stamler, Zachary S.
contents Collective turns in starling flocks propagate linearly with negligible attenuation, indicating the existence of an underdamped sector in the dispersion relation. Beside granting linear propagation of the phase perturbations, the real part of the frequency should also yield a spin-wave form of the unperturbed correlation function. However, new high-resolution experiments on real flocks show that underdamped traveling waves coexist with an overdamped Lorentzian correlation. Theory and experiments are reconciled once we add to the dynamics a Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou term.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2505_19665
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Spin-Waves without Spin-Waves: A Case for Soliton Propagation in Starling Flocks
Cavagna, Andrea
Cimino, Guido
Cristín, Javier
Fiorini, Matteo
Giardina, Irene
Giustiniani, Angelo
Grigera, Tomás S.
Melillo, Stefania
Palombella, Roberto A.
Parisi, Leonardo
Ponno, Antonio
Scandolo, Mattia
Stamler, Zachary S.
Statistical Mechanics
Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
Quantitative Methods
Collective turns in starling flocks propagate linearly with negligible attenuation, indicating the existence of an underdamped sector in the dispersion relation. Beside granting linear propagation of the phase perturbations, the real part of the frequency should also yield a spin-wave form of the unperturbed correlation function. However, new high-resolution experiments on real flocks show that underdamped traveling waves coexist with an overdamped Lorentzian correlation. Theory and experiments are reconciled once we add to the dynamics a Fermi-Pasta-Ulam-Tsingou term.
title Spin-Waves without Spin-Waves: A Case for Soliton Propagation in Starling Flocks
topic Statistical Mechanics
Soft Condensed Matter
Biological Physics
Quantitative Methods
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.19665