The Statistical Mechanics of Bird Swarms
Helmut Satz (University of Bielefeld, Germany)

In recent years, the study of swarm formation and structure has become a challenging field of research
in which biology and physics overlap. It was shown that mathematical models of many identical
components subject to simple interactions produce behavior patterns similar to those of swarms, as
observed in high statistics measurments of starling flocks in Rome by the EU Starflag collaboration.
Swarm behavior thus is an instance of selforganisation - there is no leader or formation plan.