English

Taming the Gerrymander--Statistical Physics Approach to Political Districting Problem

Physics and Society 2009-11-11 v1

Abstract

The Political Districting Problem is mapped to a qq-state Potts model in which the constraints can be written as interactions between sites or external fields acting on the system. Districting into qq voter districts is equivalent to finding the ground state of this qq-state Potts model. We illustrate this by districting Taipei city in its 2008 Legislature Election. Statistical properties of the model are also studied.

Cite

@article{arxiv.physics/0511237,
  title  = {Taming the Gerrymander--Statistical Physics Approach to Political Districting Problem},
  author = {Chung-I Chou and Sai-Ping Li},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:physics/0511237},
  year   = {2009}
}

Comments

9 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-07-22T19:07:27.078Z