English

Emergence of condensation patterns in kinetic equations for opinion dynamics

Adaptation and Self-Organizing Systems 2024-09-09 v2 Mathematical Physics math.MP Physics and Society

Abstract

In this work, we define a class of models to understand the impact of population size on opinion formation dynamics, a phenomenon usually related to group conformity. To this end, we introduce a new kinetic model in which the interaction frequency is weighted by the kinetic density. In the quasi-invariant regime, this model reduces to a Kaniadakis-Quarati-type equation with nonlinear drift, originally introduced for the dynamics of bosons in a spatially homogeneous setting. From the obtained PDE for the evolution of the opinion density, we determine the regime of parameters for which a critical mass exists and triggers blow-up of the solution. Therefore, the model is capable of describing strong conformity phenomena in cases where the total density of individuals holding a given opinion exceeds a fixed critical size. In the final part, several numerical experiments demonstrate the features of the introduced class of models and the related consensus effects.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2405.03507,
  title  = {Emergence of condensation patterns in kinetic equations for opinion dynamics},
  author = {Elisa Calzola and Giacomo Dimarco and Giuseppe Toscani and Mattia Zanella},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2405.03507},
  year   = {2024}
}