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APS » Journals » Phys. Rev. Lett. » Volume 100 » Issue 5
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Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 058001 (2008) [4 pages]

Swarming and Swirling in Self-Propelled Polar Granular Rods

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Arshad Kudrolli1, Geoffroy Lumay1,2, Dmitri Volfson3, and Lev S. Tsimring3
1Department of Physics, Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts 01610, USA
2GRASP, Physics Department, University of Liège, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
3Institute for Nonlinear Science, University of California–San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093, USA

Received 16 July 2007; published 8 February 2008

Using experiments with anisotropic vibrated rods and quasi-2D numerical simulations, we show that shape plays an important role in the collective dynamics of self-propelled (SP) particles. We demonstrate that SP rods exhibit local ordering, aggregation at the side walls, and clustering absent in round SP particles. Furthermore, we find that at sufficiently strong excitation SP rods engage in a persistent swirling motion in which the velocity is strongly correlated with particle orientation.

© 2008 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.058001
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.100.058001
PACS:
45.70.Qj, 05.65.+b
 
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