Higher-order interactions shape collective dynamics, but how they affect transitions between different states in swarmalator systems is yet to be determined. To that effect, we here study an analytically tractable swarmalator model that incorporates both pairwise and higher-order interactions, resulting in four distinct collective states: async, phase wave, mixed, and sync states. We show that even a minute fraction of higher-order interactions induces abrupt transitions from the async state to the phase wave and the sync state. We also show that higher-order interactions facilitate an abrupt transition from the phase wave to the sync state bypassing the intermediate mixed state. Moreover, elevated levels of higher-order interactions can sustain the presence of phase wave and sync state, even when pairwise interactions lean towards repulsion. The insights gained from these findings unveil self-organizing processes that hold the potential to explain sudden transitions between various collective states in numerous real-world systems.

Swarmalators are entities with the simultaneous presence of swarming and synchronization that reveal emergent collective behavior due to the fascinating bidirectional interplay between phase and spatial dynamics. Although different coupling topologies have already been considered, here we introduce time-varying competitive phase interaction among swarmalators where the underlying connectivity for attractive and repulsive coupling varies depending on the vision (sensing) radius. Apart from investigating some fundamental properties like conservation of center of position and collision avoidance, we also scrutinize the cases of extreme limits of vision radius. The concurrence of attractive–repulsive competitive phase coupling allows the exploration of diverse asymptotic states, like static π, and mixed phase wave states, and we explore the feasible routes of those states through a detailed numerical analysis. In sole presence of attractive local coupling, we reveal the occurrence of static cluster synchronization where the number of clusters depends crucially on the initial distribution of positions and phases of each swarmalator. In addition, we analytically calculate the sufficient condition for the emergence of the static synchronization state. We further report the appearance of the static ring phase wave state and evaluate its radius theoretically. Finally, we validate our findings using Stuart–Landau oscillators to describe the phase dynamics of swarmalators subject to attractive local coupling.

We study a population of swarmalators (swarming/mobile oscillators) which run on a ring and are subject to random pinning. The pinning represents the tendency of particles to stick to defects in the underlying medium which competes with the tendency to sync and swarm. The result is rich collective behavior. A highlight is low dimensional chaos which in systems of ordinary, Kuramoto-type oscillators is uncommon. Some of the states (the phase wave and split phase wave) resemble those seen in systems of Janus matchsticks or Japanese tree frogs. The others (such as the sync and unsteady states) may be observable in systems of vinegar eels, electrorotated Quincke rollers, or other swarmalators moving in disordered environments.

Swarmalators have emerged as a new paradigm for dynamical collective behavior of multi-agent systems due to the interplay of synchronization and swarming that they inherently incorporate. Their dynamics have been explored with different coupling topologies, interaction functions, external forcing, noise, competitive interactions, and from other important viewpoints. Here we take a systematic approach and review the collective dynamics of swarmalators analytically and/or numerically. Long-term states of position aggregation and phase synchronization are revealed in this perspective with some future problems.

We present a case study of swarmalators (mobile oscillators) that move on a 1D ring and are subject to pinning. Previous work considered the special case where the pinning in space and the pinning in the phase dimension were correlated. Here, we study the general case where the space and phase pinning are uncorrelated, both being chosen uniformly at random. This induces several new effects, such as pinned async, mixed states, and a first-order phase transition. These phenomena may be found in real world swarmalators, such as systems of vinegar eels, Janus matchsticks, electrorotated Quincke rollers, or Japanese tree frogs.

Swarmalators are oscillatory systems endowed with a spatial component, whose spatial and phase dynamics affect each other. Such systems can demonstrate fascinating collective dynamics resembling many real-world processes. Through this work, we study a population of swarmalators where they are divided into different communities. The strengths of spatial attraction, repulsion, as well as phase interaction differ from one group to another. Also, they vary from intercommunity to intracommunity. We encounter, as a result of variation in the phase coupling strength, different routes to achieve the static synchronization state by choosing several parameter combinations. We observe that when the intercommunity phase coupling strength is sufficiently large, swarmalators settle in the static synchronization state. However, with a significant small phase coupling strength the state of antiphase synchronization as well as chimeralike coexistence of sync and async are realized. Apart from rigorous numerical results, we have been successful to provide semianalytical treatment for the existence and stability of global static sync and the antiphase sync states.