A solvable two-dimensional swarmalator model

Swarmalators are oscillators that swarm through space as they synchronize in time. Introduced a few years ago to model many systems which mix synchrony with self-assembly, they remain poorly understood theoretically. Here we obtain the first analytic results on swarmalators moving in two-dimensional (2D) plane by enforcing periodic boundary conditions; this simpler topology allows expressions for order parameters, stabilities, and bifurcations to be derived exactly. We suggest some future directions for swarmalator research and point out some connections to the Kuramoto model and the Vicsek model from active matter; these are intended as a call-to-arms for the sync community and other researchers looking for new problems and puzzles to work on.