Non-reciprocal interactions can increase the order in an active system. This is the finding of a study by scientists from the department of Living Matter Physics at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPI-DS).
The researchers created a model to describe the emerging patterns depending on the amount of non-reciprocity in an active system. The work is published in the journal Physical Review Letters.
Living matter often shows characteristics that are absent in simpler physical systems. A typical example is the asymmetrical interaction between different particle species: one type of molecule might be attracted by the other, which in turn is repelled—just like a predator chases its prey which in turn tries to escape.
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