Related papers: Minimizing the time to a decision

The dynamics of dispersal-structured populations, consisting of competing individuals that are characterized by different diffusion coefficients but are otherwise identical, is investigated. Competition is taken into account through…

We consider processes that coincide with a given diffusion process outside a finite collection of domains. In each of the domains, there is, additionally, a large drift directed towards the interior of the domain. We describe the limiting…

Mathematically, it takes an infinite amount of time for the transient solution of a diffusion equation to transition from initial to steady state. Calculating a \textit{finite} transition time, defined as the time required for the transient…

Linear diffusion processes serve as canonical continuous-time models for dynamic decision-making under uncertainty. These systems evolve according to drift matrices that specify the instantaneous rates of change in the expected system…

The dynamics of spreading of the minority opinion in public debates (a reform proposal, a behavior change, a military retaliation) is studied using a diffusion reaction model. People move by discrete step on a landscape of random geometry…

We analyze the evolution of political organizations using a model in which agents change their opinions via two competing mechanisms. Two agents may interact and reach consensus, and additionally, individual agents may spontaneously change…

We analyze Assessment Voting, a new two-round voting procedure that can be applied to binary decisions in democratic societies. In the first round, a randomly-selected number of citizens cast their vote on one of the two alternatives at…

In systems which exhibit deterministic diffusion, the gross parameter dependence of the diffusion coefficient can often be understood in terms of random walk models. Provided the decay of correlations is fast enough, one can ignore memory…

We consider a brand with a given budget that wants to promote a product over multiple rounds of influencer marketing. In each round, it commissions an influencer to promote the product over a social network, and then observes the subsequent…

We consider a model where an agent has a repeated decision to make and wishes to maximize their total payoff. Payoffs are influenced by an action taken by the agent, but also an unknown state of the world that evolves over time. Before…

For an arbitrary initial configuration of discrete loads over vertices of a distributed graph, we consider the problem of minimizing the {\em discrepancy} between the maximum and minimum loads among all vertices. For this problem, this…

We present an exact calculation of the mean first-passage time to a small target on the surface of a 2D or 3D spherical domain, for a molecule performing surface-mediated diffusion. This minimal model of interfacial reactions, which…

We prove an averaging principle which asserts convergence of diffusion processes on domains separated by semi-permeable membranes, when diffusion coefficients tend to infinity while the flux through the membranes remains constant. In the…

We investigate the phenomenon of diffusion in a countably infinite society of individuals interacting with their neighbors in a network. At a given time, each individual is either active or inactive. The diffusion is driven by two…

Distributed computing models typically assume reliable communication between processors. While such assumptions often hold for engineered networks, e.g., due to underlying error correction protocols, their relevance to biological systems,…

We study a stochastic model for the diffusion of competing opinions in a population composed of three types of agents: trend-followers, opposers, and indifferent individuals. The decision dynamics are driven by reinforcement mechanisms,…

In the deterministic binary majority process we are given a simple graph where each node has one out of two initial opinions. In every round, every node adopts the majority opinion among its neighbors. By using a potential argument first…

We study diffusion processes driven by a Brownian motion with regular drift in a finite dimension setting. The drift has two components on different time scales, a fast conservative component and a slow dissipative component. Using the…

This paper focuses on managing the cost of deliberation before action. In many problems, the overall quality of the solution reflects costs incurred and resources consumed in deliberation as well as the cost and benefit of execution, when…

We present a new algorithm to optimize distributions defined implicitly by parameterized stochastic diffusions. Doing so allows us to modify the outcome distribution of sampling processes by optimizing over their parameters. We introduce a…