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| The dynamics of ant foraging is of interest in understanding how local interactions lead to global emergent behaviors in complex systems. We present a new mathematical model, inspired by the Keller Segel model of bacterial chemotaxis, for ant foraging that accounts for different behaviors exhibited by foragers in search of food and food carrying ants. The model distinguishes between the dynamics of food searching (foraging) ants and food carrying ants. Numerical simulations based on the model show trail formation in foraging ant colonies to be an emergent phenomenon and also account for adaptive behavior observed in recent experiments. The model has interesting characteristics related to the absence of finite time singularities that emerge in the Keller-Segel model of chemotaxis. We also discuss preliminary steady state stability results. |
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