Active particles with chirality: Application to pedestrian flows

Abstract

We analyse pattern formation in systems of active particles with right/left asymmetry of the interaction forces in the context of pedestrian dynamics. To describe the inter-particle interactions we use the standard social force model and supplement it with the new type of force, reflecting the chirality of pedestrians. We perform numerical simulations of two pedestrian flows moving in opposite directions in a long corridor. We observe phase transition from disordered motion to multi-lane motion and quantify it in terms of the order parameter. Also we observe a phase transition from the multi-lane to two-lane motion, which occurs with varying number density of pedestrians and strength of the chirality force. We perform a qualitative analysis to predict the critical density of this transition and its dependence on the chirality. The results of our analysis agree fairly well with the simulation data. Our findings may find applications in urbanistic and transport problems