While the role of local interactions in nonequilibrium phase transitions is well studied, a fundamental understanding of the effects of long-range interactions is lacking. We study the critical dynamics of reproducing agents subject to autochemotactic interactions and limited resources. A renormalization group analysis reveals distinct scaling regimes for fast (attractive or repulsive) interactions; for slow signal transduction, the dynamics is dominated by a diffusive fixed point. Furthermore, we present a correction to the Keller-Segel nonlinearity emerging close to the extinction threshold and a novel nonlinear mechanism that stabilizes the continuous transition against the emergence of a characteristic length scale due to a chemotactic collapse.

• Received 23 December 2021
• Revised 20 January 2023
• Accepted 21 June 2023

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.088201

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Published by the American Physical Society