Skip to content
DraconiticResearch
Search Sources API
201,818 studies31 sourcesUpdated 44 min ago
Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Physical Review Letters

Nonreciprocity as a Generic Mechanism for Demixing in Flocking Mixtures

  • Charlotte Myin
  • Benoît Mahault
Open at sourcePDFDOICite

Abstract

We show that even weak nonreciprocal alignment leads to large-scale structure formation in flocking mixtures. By combining numerical simulations of a binary Vicsek model and the analysis of coarse-grained continuum equations, we demonstrate that nonreciprocity destabilizes the ordered phase formed by mutually aligning or antialigning species in a large part of the phase diagram. For aligning populations, this instability results in one species condensing in a single band that travels within a homogeneous liquid of the other species. When interactions are antialigning, both species self-assemble into polar clusters with large-scale chaotic dynamics. In both cases, the emergence of structures is accompanied by the demixing of the two species, despite the absence of repulsive interactions. Our theoretical analysis allows us to elucidate the origin of the instability, and show that it is generic to nonreciprocal flocks.

Related

  1. Biaxial nematics and nematic-nematic demixing in polydisperse mixtures of hard board-like particle fluids
    Yuri Martinez-Raton, Daniel de las Heras, Enrique Velasco
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textCondensed matterStatistical & nonlinear physicsarXiv
  2. Generic long-range correlations in conserved nonequilibrium mixtures
    Jessica Metzger, Yariv Kafri, Mehran Kardar +1
    arXivPreprintarXiv licenceFull textCondensed matterStatistical & nonlinear physicsarXiv
  3. Random motility regulation as a generic mechanism of community formation
    Alberto Dinelli, Ada Altieri, Julien Tailleur
    Physical Review EPeer-reviewedLicence not statedFull textCondensed matterHAL
  4. Simplex Demixing: Disentangling Multiple Light-Flavor Jets at Colliders
    Gregorio de la Fuente, Jesse Thaler
    arXivPreprintCC BY 4.0Full textHigh-energy & particle physicsarXiv
  5. Limits of phase-controlled Floquet nonreciprocity in a dual-ring microcavity
    Jian Lei, Le Zhang, Jie Li +1
    Optics ExpressPeer-reviewedLicence not statedOptics & photonicsCrossref

Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{myin2026nonreciprocity,
  title = {{Nonreciprocity as a Generic Mechanism for Demixing in Flocking Mixtures}},
  author = {Charlotte Myin and Benoît Mahault},
  journal = {Physical Review Letters},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1103/v435-qnhl},
  eprint = {2510.25377},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://hal.science/hal-05734893v1},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Nonreciprocity as a Generic Mechanism for Demixing in Flocking Mixtures
AU  - Charlotte Myin
AU  - Benoît Mahault
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/01
JO  - Physical Review Letters
DO  - 10.1103/v435-qnhl
UR  - https://hal.science/hal-05734893v1
AB  - We show that even weak nonreciprocal alignment leads to large-scale structure formation in flocking mixtures. By combining numerical simulations of a binary Vicsek model and the analysis of coarse-grained continuum equations, we demonstrate that nonreciprocity destabilizes the ordered phase formed by mutually aligning or antialigning species in a large part of the phase diagram. For aligning populations, this instability results in one species condensing in a single band that travels within a homogeneous liquid of the other species. When interactions are antialigning, both species self-assemble into polar clusters with large-scale chaotic dynamics. In both cases, the emergence of structures is accompanied by the demixing of the two species, despite the absence of repulsive interactions. Our theoretical analysis allows us to elucidate the origin of the instability, and show that it is generic to nonreciprocal flocks.
SN  - 0031-9007
SN  - 1079-7114
ER  -