Ring patterns and their bifurcations in a nonlocal model of biological swarms (Q2348485)

The present work deals with models of swarms in the plane. A swarm consists of particles that are repelled by each others at short range (in order to avoid collisions), and are attracted by each others at medium/large range (in order to keep the swarm coherent). Additionally, models with self-propelled particles are studied in the next to last section. Discrete models feature a finite number of particles, while continuous models describe the time evolution of the particles density (``aggregation equation''). The results concern stability and bifurcation of a ring-shaped swarm, when the model admits such an equilibrium. The authors show that a mode \(m\in \mathbb{N}\) is stable if the eigenvalues of a certain \(2\times 2\) matrix are negative. They underline that different types of patterns emerge depending on whether finitely many modes are unstable (short wave stable) or infinitely many. In the first case, the pattern bifurcates away from the ring but remains a curve. If certain stability conditions are violated, a pitchfork bifurcation happens. In the second case, multiple rings appear in the discrete models, or an annulus with high density at its edge in the continuous model. The bifurcation to 2 rings is studied rigorously, while the multiple rings scenario is justified numerically. Most of these results assume that the particle interactions are driven by a power law or a generalized power series.