DA609

From Networks to Traveling Waves and Back: Persistent Pattern Generation Across Collective Phases in C. elegans

Thousands of C. elegans placed adjacent to a food patch self-organize sequentially into a visible branching network off-food and then a coherent traveling consumption wave -- a multi-phase collective phenomenon we term wurmuration. Dynamical networks and traveling waves have previously only been described separately in this organism. Using a minimal agent-based model, we show that a single generative program produces both collective phases and their topological continuity.