Figure 1
Swarm kinematics. (a) Trajectories (> 40 s long) of individual midges (each colour corresponding to a different midge) are individually convoluted but remain spatially localized over a ground-based swarm marker (black square). (b) Averaged spring constant \(\langle k|N\rangle\) as function of the swarm size N (symbols). The black line is a power-law fit to the data. (c) Probability density function (PDF) of midge positions in the horizontal plane (blue) along with a Gaussian fit to the data (red). (d) PDF of midge positions in the vertical (gravity) direction (blue) and a Gaussian fit to the data (red). The deviation from Gaussianity in the vertical component of the position arises from the symmetry breaking due to the bottom floor of the experimental setup. (e,f) PDFs of the horizontal (e) and vertical (f) midge velocities (blue) along with Gaussian fits to the data (red).
