Hydrodynamic theory of flocking at a solid-liquid interface: Long-range order and giant number fluctuations

Swarming Bottom Feeders: Flocking at Solid-Liquid Interfaces

We present the hydrodynamic theory of coherent collective motion ("flocking") at a solid-liquid interface, and many of its predictions for experiment. We find that such systems are stable, and have long-range orientational order, over a wide range of parameters. When stable, these systems exhibit "giant number fluctuations," which grow as the 3/4th power of the mean number. Stable systems also exhibit anomalous rapid diffusion of tagged particles suspended in the passive fluid along any directions in a plane parallel to the solid-liquid interface, whereas the diffusivity along the direction perpendicular to the plane is not anomalous. In the remaining parameter space, the system becomes unstable.