Self-Aligning Polar Active Matter

Self-alignment describes the property of a polar active unit to align or anti-align its orientation towards its velocity. In contrast to mutual alignment, where the headings of multiple active units tend to directly align to each other – as in the celebrated Vicsek model –, self-alignment impacts the dynamics at the individual level by coupling the rotation and displacements of each active unit. This enriches the dynamics even without interactions or external forces, and allows, for example, a single self-propelled particle to orbit in a harmonic potential. At the collective level, self-alignment modifies the nature of the transition to collective motion already in the mean field description, and it can also lead to other forms of self-organization such as collective actuation in dense or solid elastic assemblies of active units. This has significant implications for the study of dense biological systems, metamaterials, and swarm robotics. Here, we review a number of models that were introduced independently to describe the previously overlooked property of self-alignment and identify some of its experimental realizations. Our aim is three-fold: (i) underline the importance of self-alignment in active systems, especially in the context of dense populations of active units and active solids; (ii) provide a unified mathematical and conceptual framework for the description of self-aligning systems; (iii) discuss the common features and specific differences of the existing models of self-alignment. We conclude by discussing promising research avenues in which the concept of self-alignment could play a significant role.