Figure 3: Flocking phase transition and growth of correlations.
(a) Experimental phase diagram in the Φb−Φr plane, showing the phase boundary between the isotropic phase and the flock. Clustering at the sample boundary sets in at high concentration. (b) Simulation phase diagram in the flower geometry reproduces the flocking transition. We have not explored concentrations at which boundary clustering is expected. Increase in polar order parameter P as function of Φb for experiments (c) and simulations (d). The error bars correspond to the standard deviation of P. Orientational correlation function from experiments (e) and simulations in a 55.1-rod-length periodic box (f) at various Φb at a fixed Φr. A considerable range of power-law correlations is seen as Φb increases.
