The Phase-Ordering Kinetics of Cemetery Organization in Ants

Eric Bonabeau, Guy Theraulaz, Vincent Fourcassi\'e and Jean-Louis Deneubourg

Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute

Abstract: The clustering of dead bodies by ants is simulated, using a cellular automaton model, the rules of which are carefully derived from experiments. Starting from a random spatial distribution of corpses, a cemetery organizes itself into clusters of corpses. The dynamics of clustering can be compared to the phase-ordering kinetics of a bidimensional idealized magnetic system with scalar conserved order parameter. In particular, scaling relations are found for the structure factor and the dynamics of cluster growth, which can be compared with those predicted by the theory of phase ordering kinetics. Observed exponents are consistent with those expected in early stage phase ordering kinetics.

Keywords: Ants; cemetery formation; phase-ordering; scaling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1998-01
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:wop:safiwp:98-01-008

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from Santa Fe Institute Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Thomas Krichel ().