AI Insight
Researchers from Dresden have developed a new theoretical framework to describe nonreciprocal interactions in collective systems, where individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings rather than following Newton's third law of equal action and reaction. The theory applies to various biological systems including bird flocks, bacterial colonies, and cellular groups, enabling more efficient descriptions and significantly more precise simulations of their collective behavior. This work was conducted by a physics team including Roderich Moessner from the Würzburg–Dresden Cluster of Excellence ct.qmat.
Why it matters
This theoretical advancement could improve computational models used to predict and understand collective behavior in biological systems, from animal group dynamics to cellular processes. More accurate simulations may have applications in fields ranging from ecology and crowd management to biomedical research and understanding cellular organization.
Birds in flocks, bacteria and cells: In many collective systems, individual elements respond to only part of their surroundings, seemingly defying Newton’s third law of motion—action equals reaction. These exceptions are known as nonreciprocal interactions. A Dresden physics team working with Roderich Moessner, a founding member of the Würzburg–Dresden Cluster of Excellence ctd.qmat, has now developed a theory that makes it possible to describe these interactions efficiently and simulate them far more precisely.
Source: Why birds ignore Newton: New theory could sharpen models of flocks, crowds and cells