Searching for universal laws behind the beauty of collective behavior
What is active matter physics? A flock of starlings circling the dusk sky like a gigantic black ghost. Or a school of sardines creating massive whirlpools in the sea to fool their enemies. Or, on land rather than at sea, a colony of army ants marching in circles to form a hill-like structure. All of these examples display magnificent collective behavior as if there was a leader somewhere in control. However, there is no leader, no choreographer. How is such neatly ordered collective behavior possible? That is the mystery that Daiki Nishiguchi is tackling. One could be forgiven for thinking that his research pertains to biology and has nothing to do with physics. Yet, “This is active matter physics, a field within non-equilibrium statistical physics,” he clarifies.