Anomalous fundamental diagrams in traffic on ant trails

Abstract

Many insects like ants communicate chemically via chemotaxis. This allows them to build large trail systems which in many respects are similar to human-build highway networks. Using a recently proposed stochastic cellular automaton model we discuss the basic properties of the traffic flow on existing trails. Surprisingly it is found that in certain regimes the average speed of the ants can vary non-monotonically with their density. This is in sharp contrast to highway traffic. The observations can be understood by the formation of loose clusters, i.e. space regions of enhanced, but not maximal, density. We also discuss the effect of counterflow on the trails.