Order-disorder transition in multidirectional crowds.

ABSTRACT: One of the archetypal examples of active flows is a busy concourse crossed by people moving in different directions according to their personal destinations. When the crowd is isotropic-comprising individuals moving in all different directions-the collective motion is disordered. In contrast, if it is possible to identify two dominant directions of motion, for example in a corridor, the crowd spontaneously organizes into contraflowing lanes or stripes. In this article, we characterize the physics of the transition between these two distinct phases by using a synergy of theoretical analysis, numerical simulations, and stylized experiments. We develop a hydrodynamic theory for collisional flows of heterogeneous populations, and we analyze the stability of the disordered configuration. We ide

SUBMITTER: Bacik KA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12002293 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature