Quite surprisingly, one can infer the size of a stochastic system from the characteristics of the motion of a single unit. This enticing idea has been applied by Einstein, Smoluchowski, and Perrin to determine the number of particles in a mole, the well-known Avogadro’s number.
In their new work, Prof. Pietro De Lellis and our own Prof. Maurizio Porfiri applied this idea to collective behavior. To this end, they studied the motion of a single unit within the universal model of collective dynamics of Vicsek particles.
Read the paper “Inferring the size of a collective of self-propelled Vicsek particles from the random motion of a single unit” published in Communications Physics here.
Read the press release on NYU Tandon’s website here.
Read the research feature in EurekAlert! here and in Phys.org here.
Image credit: Pietro De Lellis, Maurizio Porfiri, and Anna Sawulska.