Following Your Nose: Autochemotaxis and Other Mechanisms for Spinodal Decomposition in Flocks
Following Your Nose: Autochemotaxis and Other Mechanisms for Spinodal Decomposition in Flocks
We develop the hydrodynamic theory of dry, polar ordered, active matter (``flocking'') with autochemotaxis; i.e., self-propelled entities moving in the same direction, each emitting a substance which attracts the others (e.g., ants). We find that sufficiently strong autochemotaxis leads to an instability to phase separation into one high and one …