On dynamic monopolies of graphs with general thresholds

Let $G$ be a graph and ${\mathcal{\tau}}: V(G)\rightarrow \Bbb{N}$ be an assignment of thresholds to the vertices of $G$. A subset of vertices $D$ is said to be dynamic monopoly (or simply dynamo) if the vertices of $G$ can be partitioned into subsets $D_0, D_1,..., D_k$ such that $D_0=D$ and for any $i=1,..., k-1$ each vertex $v$ in $D_{i+1}$ has at least $t(v)$ neighbors in $D_0\cup ...\cup D_i$. Dynamic monopolies are in fact modeling the irreversible spread of influence such as disease or belief in social networks. We denote the smallest size of any dynamic monopoly of $G$, with a given threshold assignment, by $dyn(G)$. In this paper we first define the concept of a resistant subgraph and show its relationship with dynamic monopolies. Then we obtain some lower and upper bounds for the smallest size of dynamic monopolies in graphs with different types of thresholds. Next we introduce dynamo-unbounded families of graphs and prove some related results. We also define the concept of a homogenious society that is a graph with probabilistic thresholds satisfying some conditions and obtain a bound for the smallest size of its dynamos. Finally we consider dynamic monopoly of line graphs and obtain some bounds for their sizes and determine the exact values in some special cases

On dynamic monopolies of graphs: the average and strict majority thresholds

Let $G$ be a graph and ${\mathcal{\tau}}: V(G)\rightarrow \Bbb{N}\cup \{0\}$ be an assignment of thresholds to the vertices of $G$. A subset of vertices $D$ is said to be a dynamic monopoly corresponding to $(G, \tau)$ if the vertices of $G$ can be partitioned into subsets $D_0, D_1,..., D_k$ such that $D_0=D$ and for any $i\in {0, ..., k-1}$, each vertex $v$ in $D_{i+1}$ has at least $\tau(v)$ neighbors in $D_0\cup ... \cup D_i$. Dynamic monopolies are in fact modeling the irreversible spread of influence in social networks. In this paper we first obtain a lower bound for the smallest size of any dynamic monopoly in terms of the average threshold and the order of graph. Also we obtain an upper bound in terms of the minimum vertex cover of graphs. Then we derive the upper bound $|G|/2$ for the smallest size of any dynamic monopoly when the graph $G$ contains at least one odd vertex, where the threshold of any vertex $v$ is set as $\lceil (deg(v)+1)/2 \rceil$ (i.e. strict majority threshold). This bound improves the best known bound for strict majority threshold. We show that the latter bound can be achieved by a polynomial time algorithm. We also show that $\alpha'(G)+1$ is an upper bound for the size of strict majority dynamic monopoly, where $\alpha'(G)$ stands for the matching number of $G$. Finally, we obtain a basic upper bound for the smallest size of any dynamic monopoly, in terms of the average threshold and vertex degrees. Using this bound we derive some other upper bounds

Majority Dynamics and Aggregation of Information in Social Networks

Consider n individuals who, by popular vote, choose among q >= 2 alternatives, one of which is "better" than the others. Assume that each individual votes independently at random, and that the probability of voting for the better alternative is larger than the probability of voting for any other. It follows from the law of large numbers that a plurality vote among the n individuals would result in the correct outcome, with probability approaching one exponentially quickly as n tends to infinity. Our interest in this paper is in a variant of the process above where, after forming their initial opinions, the voters update their decisions based on some interaction with their neighbors in a social network. Our main example is "majority dynamics", in which each voter adopts the most popular opinion among its friends. The interaction repeats for some number of rounds and is then followed by a population-wide plurality vote. The question we tackle is that of "efficient aggregation of information": in which cases is the better alternative chosen with probability approaching one as n tends to infinity? Conversely, for which sequences of growing graphs does aggregation fail, so that the wrong alternative gets chosen with probability bounded away from zero? We construct a family of examples in which interaction prevents efficient aggregation of information, and give a condition on the social network which ensures that aggregation occurs. For the case of majority dynamics we also investigate the question of unanimity in the limit. In particular, if the voters' social network is an expander graph, we show that if the initial population is sufficiently biased towards a particular alternative then that alternative will eventually become the unanimous preference of the entire population.Comment: 22 page

Absorption Time of the Moran Process

The Moran process models the spread of mutations in populations on graphs. We investigate the absorption time of the process, which is the time taken for a mutation introduced at a randomly chosen vertex to either spread to the whole population, or to become extinct. It is known that the expected absorption time for an advantageous mutation is O(n^4) on an n-vertex undirected graph, which allows the behaviour of the process on undirected graphs to be analysed using the Markov chain Monte Carlo method. We show that this does not extend to directed graphs by exhibiting an infinite family of directed graphs for which the expected absorption time is exponential in the number of vertices. However, for regular directed graphs, we show that the expected absorption time is Omega(n log n) and O(n^2). We exhibit families of graphs matching these bounds and give improved bounds for other families of graphs, based on isoperimetric number. Our results are obtained via stochastic dominations which we demonstrate by establishing a coupling in a related continuous-time model. The coupling also implies several natural domination results regarding the fixation probability of the original (discrete-time) process, resolving a conjecture of Shakarian, Roos and Johnson.Comment: minor change