SEMINAIRE MERCREDI 30 JANVIER 2008
14 heures
Salle Séminaire 5
Centre de Physique Théorique
Marseille-Luminy

Istvan Daruka
University of Geneva

Title: Phenomenological Modeling of the Flight of Starling Flocks

Abstract: Starling flocks exhibit arresting features of
self-organization including spontaneous ordering, collective turning,
landing, and anti-predatory response. Together with my field
observations, I describe some phenomenological models that were
developed in order to understand their collective motion. Beyond the
simple scalar/vectorial noise models which account for the spontaneous
ordering of bird flocks, I introduce our models that describe the
collective landing (3D) and anti-predatory response (2D) of starlings.
Finally, I discuss the challenges of physical modeling.