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Related papers: Population Protocols for Exact Plurality Consensus…

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Population protocols are a distributed computation model in which a collection of anonymous, finite-state agents interact in randomly chosen pairs and update their states according to a fixed transition function. The computation is defined…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2026-05-12 Michael Blondin , Michaël Cadilhac , Benjamin Courchesne , Lucie Guillou , Corto Mascle , Isa Vialard

The model of population protocols refers to a large collection of simple indistinguishable entities, frequently called {\em agents}. The agents communicate and perform computation through pairwise interactions. We study fast and space…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2018-05-15 Leszek Gąsieniec , Grzegorz Stachowiak , Przemysław Uznański

We study the minority-opinion dynamics over a fully-connected network of $n$ nodes with binary opinions. Upon activation, a node receives a sample of opinions from a limited number of neighbors chosen uniformly at random. Each activated…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2023-10-23 Luca Becchetti , Andrea Clementi , Francesco Pasquale , Luca Trevisan , Robin Vacus , Isabella Ziccardi

A compromise process describes the evolution of opinions through binary interactions. Opinions are real numbers, and at each step, two randomly selected agents reach a compromise by averaging their pre-interaction opinions. We prove that if…

Physics and Society · Physics 2026-01-23 P. L. Krapivsky , A. Yu. Plakhov

We study here the problem of determining the majority type in an arbitrary connected network, each vertex of which has initially two possible types. The vertices may have a few additional possible states and can interact in pairs only if…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2014-05-01 George B. Mertzios , Sotiris E. Nikoletseas , Christoforos L. Raptopoulos , Paul G. Spirakis

In this short note we study what happens in a symmetric opinion model when we send the total interacting population $N(t)$ to infinity as $t \to \infty$. We assume that new population enters the system with opinions that are i.i.d random…

Probability · Mathematics 2025-10-03 Ioannis Markou

Multi-agent consensus problems can often be seen as a sequence of autonomous and independent local choices between a finite set of decision options, with each local choice undertaken simultaneously, and with a shared goal of achieving a…

Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science 2021-05-12 David Kohan Marzagão , Luciana Basualdo Bonatto , Tiago Madeira , Marcelo Matheus Gauy , Peter McBurney

The \emph{rational fair consensus problem} can be informally defined as follows. Consider a network of $n$ (selfish) \emph{rational agents}, each of them initially supporting a \emph{color} chosen from a finite set $ \Sigma$. The goal is to…

Computer Science and Game Theory · Computer Science 2017-05-29 Andrea Clementi , Luciano Gualà , Guido Proietti , Giacomo Scornavacca

The model of population protocols refers to the growing in popularity theoretical framework suitable for studying pairwise interactions within a large collection of simple indistinguishable entities, frequently called agents. In this paper…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2018-03-28 Leszek Gasieniec , Grzegorz Stachowiak

We study Plurality Consensus in the Gossip Model over a network of $n$ anonymous agents. Each agent supports an initial opinion or color. We assume that at the onset, the number of agents supporting the plurality color exceeds that of the…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2014-07-11 L. Becchetti , A. Clementi , E. Natale , F. Pasquale , R. Silvestri

Population protocols are a popular model of distributed computing, in which randomly-interacting agents with little computational power cooperate to jointly perform computational tasks. Inspired by developments in molecular computation, and…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2017-04-18 Dan Alistarh , James Aspnes , David Eisenstat , Rati Gelashvili , Ronald L. Rivest

We present a loosely-stabilizing phase clock for population protocols. In the population model we are given a system of $n$ identical agents which interact in a sequence of randomly chosen pairs. Our phase clock is leaderless and it…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2021-12-03 Petra Berenbrink , Felix Biermeier , Christopher Hahn , Dominik Kaaser

We address the self-stabilizing bit-dissemination problem, designed to capture the challenges of spreading information and reaching consensus among entities with minimal cognitive and communication capacities. Specifically, a group of $n$…

Multiagent Systems · Computer Science 2024-10-10 Niccolò D'Archivio , Robin Vacus

We present a tight analysis for the well-studied randomized 3-majority dynamics of stabilizing consensus, hence answering the main open question of Becchetti et al. [SODA'16]. Consider a distributed system of n nodes, each initially holding…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2017-05-17 Mohsen Ghaffari , Johannes Lengler

We study the problem of reaching agreement in a synchronous distributed system by $n$ autonomous parties, when the communication links from/to faulty parties can omit messages. The faulty parties are selected and controlled by an adaptive,…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2024-05-27 Mohammad T. Hajiaghayi , Dariusz R. Kowalski , Jan Olkowski

We present the first upper bound on the convergence time to consensus of the well-known $h$-majority dynamics with $k$ opinions, in the synchronous setting, for $h$ and $k$ that are both non-constant values. We suppose that, at the…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2025-08-22 Francesco d'Amore , Niccolò D'Archivio , George Giakkoupis , Emanuele Natale

The population protocol model is a computational model for passive mobile agents. We address the leader election problem, which determines a unique leader on arbitrary communication graphs starting from any configuration. Unfortunately,…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2025-11-10 Haruki Kanaya , Ryota Eguchi , Taisho Sasada , Michiko Inoue

Consider the problem of finding a population or a probability distribution amongst many with the largest mean when these means are unknown but population samples can be simulated or otherwise generated. Typically, by selecting largest…

Probability · Mathematics 2018-09-11 Peter Glynn , Sandeep Juneja

Population protocols (Angluin et al., PODC, 2004) are a formal model of sensor networks consisting of identical mobile devices. Two devices can interact and thereby change their states. Computations are infinite sequences of interactions…

Logic in Computer Science · Computer Science 2018-08-15 Javier Esparza , Pierre Ganty , Rupak Majumdar , Chana Weil-Kennedy

We study the plurality consensus problem in distributed systems where a population of extremely simple agents, each initially holding one of $k$ opinions, aims to agree on the initially most frequent one. In this setting, $h$-majority is…

Distributed, Parallel, and Cluster Computing · Computer Science 2026-04-14 Francesco d'Amore , Niccolò D'Archivio , George Giakkoupis , Frédéric Giroire , Emanuele Natale