Active quantum flocks

Understand

Flocks of animals represent a prominent archetype of collective behavior in the macroscopic classical world, where the constituents, such as birds, concertedly perform motions and actions as if being one single entity.

• Here, we address the so far open question of whether flocks can also form in the microscopic world at the quantum level.
• For that purpose, we introduce the concept of active quantum matter by formulating a class of models of active quantum particles on a one-dimensional lattice.
• We provide both analytical and large-scale numerical evidence that these systems can give rise to quantum flocks.