Aggregation and disaggregation of active particles on the unit sphere with time-dependent frequencies (Q2120338)

This paper concerns the model described by \[ \begin{aligned} \dot{x}_i & = \Omega_i x_i+\frac{\kappa}{N}\sum_{k=1}^N(x_k-\langle x_i,x_k\rangle x_i), \\ \dot{\Omega_i} & = -\gamma\Omega_i+\frac{\mu}{N}\sum_{k=1}^N\Gamma(\Omega_i,\Omega_k), \end{aligned} \] where each \(x_i\) lies on the unit sphere in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) and the \(\Omega_i\) are \(d\times d\) skew-symmetric matrices. \(\langle\cdot,\cdot\rangle\) is the standard inner product, and \(\mu\) and \(\gamma\) are positive. For three types of function \(\Gamma\) the authors derive sufficient conditions leading to aggregation, i.e.~all \(x_i\) become equal as do all \(\Omega_i\). This occurs for attractive interactions (\(\kappa>0\)). For repulsive interactions (\(\kappa<0\)) the authors derive sufficient conditions for disaggregation, i.e.~the \(x_i\) are uniformly spread over the unit circle. The results of a number of numerical simulations are shown, which illustrate the theoretical results.