Mass Media and Polarisation Processes in the Bounded Confidence Model of Opinion Dynamics

This paper presents a social simulation in which we add an additional layer of mass media communication to the social network \'bounded confidence\' model of Deffuant et al (2000). A population of agents on a lattice with continuous opinions and bounded confidence adjust their opinions on the basis of binary social network interactions between neighbours or communication with a fixed opinion. There are two mechanisms for interaction. \'Social interaction\' occurs between neighbours on a lattice and \'mass communication,\' adjusts opinions based on an agent interacting with a fixed opinion. Two new variables are added, polarisation: the degree to which two mass media opinions differ, and broadcast ratio: the number of social interactions for each mass media communication. Four dynamical regimes are observed, fragmented, double extreme convergence, a state of persistent opinion exchange leading to single extreme convergence and a disordered state. Double extreme convergence is found where agents are less willing to change opinion and mass media communications are common or where there is moderate willingness to change opinion and a high frequency of mass media communications. Single extreme convergence is found where there is moderate willingness to change opinion and a lower frequency of mass media communication. A period of persistent opinion exchange precedes single extreme convergence, it is characterized by the formation of two opposing groups of opinion separated by a gradient of opinion exchange. With even very low frequencies of mass media communications this results in a move to central opinions followed by a global drift to one extreme as one of the opposing groups of opinion dominates. A similar pattern of findings is observed for Neumann and Moore neighbourhoods.Opinion Dynamics, Mass Media, Polarisation, Extremists, Consensus

Distributed convex optimization via continuous-time coordination algorithms with discrete-time communication

This paper proposes a novel class of distributed continuous-time coordination algorithms to solve network optimization problems whose cost function is a sum of local cost functions associated to the individual agents. We establish the exponential convergence of the proposed algorithm under (i) strongly connected and weight-balanced digraph topologies when the local costs are strongly convex with globally Lipschitz gradients, and (ii) connected graph topologies when the local costs are strongly convex with locally Lipschitz gradients. When the local cost functions are convex and the global cost function is strictly convex, we establish asymptotic convergence under connected graph topologies. We also characterize the algorithm's correctness under time-varying interaction topologies and study its privacy preservation properties. Motivated by practical considerations, we analyze the algorithm implementation with discrete-time communication. We provide an upper bound on the stepsize that guarantees exponential convergence over connected graphs for implementations with periodic communication. Building on this result, we design a provably-correct centralized event-triggered communication scheme that is free of Zeno behavior. Finally, we develop a distributed, asynchronous event-triggered communication scheme that is also free of Zeno with asymptotic convergence guarantees. Several simulations illustrate our results.Comment: 12 page

Adiabatic corrections for velocity-gauge simulations of electron dynamics in periodic potentials

We show how to significantly reduce the number of energy bands required to model the interaction of light with crystalline solids in the velocity gauge. We achieve this by deriving analytical corrections to the electric current density. These corrections depend only on band energies, the matrix elements of the momentum operator, and the macroscopic vector potential. Thus, the corrections can be evaluated independently from modeling the interaction with light. In addition to improving the convergence of velocity-gauge calculations, our analytical approach overcomes the long-standing problem of divergences in expressions for linear and nonlinear susceptibilities.Comment: Submitted to Computer Physics Communication

On Robustness Analysis of a Dynamic Average Consensus Algorithm to Communication Delay

This paper studies the robustness of a dynamic average consensus algorithm to communication delay over strongly connected and weight-balanced (SCWB) digraphs. Under delay-free communication, the algorithm of interest achieves a practical asymptotic tracking of the dynamic average of the time-varying agents' reference signals. For this algorithm, in both its continuous-time and discrete-time implementations, we characterize the admissible communication delay range and study the effect of the delay on the rate of convergence and the tracking error bound. Our study also includes establishing a relationship between the admissible delay bound and the maximum degree of the SCWB digraphs. We also show that for delays in the admissible bound, for static signals the algorithms achieve perfect tracking. Moreover, when the interaction topology is a connected undirected graph, we show that the discrete-time implementation is guaranteed to tolerate at least one step delay. Simulations demonstrate our results

Welfare Maximization with Limited Interaction

We continue the study of welfare maximization in unit-demand (matching) markets, in a distributed information model where agent's valuations are unknown to the central planner, and therefore communication is required to determine an efficient allocation. Dobzinski, Nisan and Oren (STOC'14) showed that if the market size is $n$, then $r$ rounds of interaction (with logarithmic bandwidth) suffice to obtain an $n^{1/(r+1)}$-approximation to the optimal social welfare. In particular, this implies that such markets converge to a stable state (constant approximation) in time logarithmic in the market size. We obtain the first multi-round lower bound for this setup. We show that even if the allowable per-round bandwidth of each agent is $n^{\epsilon(r)}$, the approximation ratio of any $r$-round (randomized) protocol is no better than $\Omega(n^{1/5^{r+1}})$, implying an $\Omega(\log \log n)$ lower bound on the rate of convergence of the market to equilibrium. Our construction and technique may be of interest to round-communication tradeoffs in the more general setting of combinatorial auctions, for which the only known lower bound is for simultaneous ($r=1$) protocols [DNO14]