Speaker
Shubhendu Shekhar Khali
Description
Collective motion is a hallmark of active systems, yet most models of flocking use overdamped dynamics with instantaneous alignment. In this work we investigate how introducing rotational inertia modifies the flocking transition using underdamped Langevin dynamics framework with torque-based alignment interaction. Compared to overdamped orientational dymanics where stronger alignment monotonically promotes order, we observe a reentrant loss of polar order with increasing alignment strength at intermediate inertia. This loss of order arises from underdamped rotational dynamics where overshooting leads to enhanced angular fluctuations that destabilize the collective motion.
