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Modeling flying formations as flow-mediated matter
Christiana Mavroyiakoumou, Jiajie Wu, Leif Ristroph
https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.14025 https://

Modeling flying formations as flow-mediated matter
Collective locomotion of swimming and flying animals is fascinating in terms of individual-level fluid mechanics and group-level structure and dynamics. Here we bridge and relate these scales through a model of formation flight that views the collective as a material whose properties arise from the flow-mediated interactions among its members. We build on and revise an aerodynamic model describing how flapping flyers produce vortex wakes and how they are forced by others' wakes. While simplisti…