Numerical simulations of a non-conservative hyperbolic system with geometric constraints describing swarming behavior

Abstract

The Vicsek model is a very popular individual based model which describes collective behavior among animal societies. A macroscopic version of the Vicsek model has been derived from a large scale limit of this individual based model \cite{degond2007ml}. In this work, we want to numerically validate this Macroscopic Vicsek model (MV). To this aim, we compare the simulations of the macroscopic and microscopic models one with each other. The MV model is a non-conservative hyperbolic equation with a geometric constraint. Due to the lack of theory for this kind of equations, we derive several equivalents for this system leading to specific numerical schemes. The numerical simulations reveal that the microscopic and macroscopic models are in good agreement provided that we choose one of the proposed formulations based on a relaxation of the geometric constraint. This confirms the relevance of the macroscopic equation but it also calls for a better theoretical understanding of this type of equations.