UBC Math Bio Seminar: Arnd Scheel

I will report on a simple model for collective self-organization in colonies of myxobacteria. Mechanisms include only running, to the left or to the right at fixed speed, and tumbling, with a rate depending on head-on collisions. We show that variations in the tumbling rate only can lead to the observed qualitatively different behaviors: equidistribution, rippling, and formation of aggregates. In a second part, I will discuss in somewhat more detail questions pertaining to the selection of wavenumbers in the case where ripples are formed, in particular in connection with recent progress on the marginal stability conjecture for front invasion.