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Phys. Rev. E 67, 036120 (2003) [11 pages]

Cluster formation and anomalous fundamental diagram in an ant-trail model

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Katsuhiro Nishinari*
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, D-50937 Köln, Germany

Debashish Chowdhury†
Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur 208016, India

Andreas Schadschneider‡
Institut für Theoretische Physik, Universität zu Köln, D-50937 Köln, Germany

Received 29 November 2002; published 28 March 2003

A recently proposed stochastic cellular automaton model [J. Phys. A 35, L573 (2002)], motivated by the motions of ants in a trail, is investigated in detail in this paper. The flux of ants in this model is sensitive to the probability of evaporation of pheromone, and the average speed of the ants varies nonmonotonically with their density. This remarkable property is analyzed here using phenomenological and microscopic approximations thereby elucidating the nature of the spatiotemporal organization of the ants. We find that the observations can be understood by the formation of loose clusters, i.e., space regions of enhanced, but not maximal, density.

© 2003 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.67.036120
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.67.036120
PACS:
02.50.Ey, 05.40.-a

*Permanent address: Department of Applied Mathematics and Informatics, Ryukoku University, Shiga, Japan (email address: knishi@rins.ryukoku.ac.jp). Electronic address: kn@thp.uni-koeln.de

†Electronic address: debch@iitk.ac.in

‡Electronic address: as@thp.uni-koeln.de

 
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