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Spontaneous symmetry breaking and panic escape

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  • Choong Sun Kim
  • Claudio Dib
  • Sechul Oh

Abstract

Panic-induced herding in individuals often leads to social disasters, resulting in people being trapped and trampled in crowd stampedes triggered by panic. We introduce a novel approach that offers fresh insights into studying the phenomenon of asymmetrical panic-induced escape. Our approach is based on the concept of Spontaneous Symmetry Breaking (SSB), a fundamental governing mechanism in the Physical Sciences. By applying the principles of SSB, we conjecture that the onset of disastrous effects of panic can be understood as a SSB phenomenon, and we formulate the process accordingly. We highlight that this way of understanding panic escape leads to simple general measures of preventing catastrophic situations, by considering two crucial parameters: population density and external information. The interplay of these two parameters is responsible for either breaking or restoring the symmetry of a system. We describe how these parameters are set by design conditions as well as crowd control. Based on these parameters, we discuss strategies for preventing potential social disasters caused by asymmetrical panic escape.

Suggested Citation

  • Choong Sun Kim & Claudio Dib & Sechul Oh, 2025. "Spontaneous symmetry breaking and panic escape," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(5), pages 1-19, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0322862
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322862
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Yuan-Kai Chung & Chung-Chi Lin, 2017. "Heat-induced symmetry breaking in ant (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) escape behavior," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 12(3), pages 1-12, March.
    2. Kirchner, Ansgar & Schadschneider, Andreas, 2002. "Simulation of evacuation processes using a bionics-inspired cellular automaton model for pedestrian dynamics," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 312(1), pages 260-276.
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