Motile dissenters disrupt the flocking of active granular matter.
basic_science · Level V
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- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32575184.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1103/PhysRevE.101.052615.
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Abstract
We report flocking in the dry active granular matter of millimeter-sized two-step-tapered rods without an intervening medium. The system undergoes the flocking phase transition at a threshold area fraction of ∼0.12 having high orientational correlations between the particles. However, the one-step-tapered rods do not flock and are used as the motile dissenters in the flock-forming granular matter. At the critical fraction of dissenters of ∼0.3, the flocking order of the system gets completely destroyed. The variance of the system's order parameter shows a maximum near the dissenter fraction f∼0.05, suggesting a finite-size crossover between the ordered and disordered phases. Our experiments bring out the disruption of the cooperative behavior in heterogeneous active systems with possible implications in real-life examples.