A trust model for spreading gossip in social networks

We introduce here a multi-type bootstrap percolation model, which we call T-Bootstrap Percolation (T-BP), and apply it to study information propagation in social networks. In this model, a social network is represented by a graph G whose vertices have different labels corresponding to the type of role the person plays in the network (e.g. a student, an educator, etc.). Once an initial set of vertices of G is randomly selected to be carrying a gossip (e.g. to be infected), the gossip propagates to a new vertex provided it is transmitted by a minimum threshold of vertices with different labels. By considering random graphs, which have been shown to closely represent social networks, we study different properties of the T-BP model through numerical simulations, and describe its implications when applied to rumour spread, fake news, and marketing strategies.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Sudden violation of the CHSH inequality in a two qubits system

I study the dynamics of the violation of the CHSH inequality for two qubits interacting with a common zero-temperature non-Markovian environment. I demonstrate sudden violation of the inequality for two qubits initially prepared in a factorized state. Due to the strong coupling between the qubits and the reservoir, the dynamics is characterized by numerous sharp revivals. Furthermore I focus on a more realistic physical system in which the spontaneous emission for the qubits is taken into account. When including spontaneous emission even for small decay parameters, revivals in the violation are heavily damped out. If the decay rates exceed a certain threshold, the inequality turns out to be always satisfied.Comment: Accepted by Physica Scripta as part of the Proceedings of CEWQO0

The Phone Walkers: A study of human dependence on inactive mobile devices

The development of mobile phones has largely increased human interactions. Whilst the use of these devices for communication has received significant attention, there has been little analysis of more passive interactions. Through census data on casual social groups, this work suggests a clear pattern of mobile phones being carried in people's hands, without the person using it (that is, not looking at it). Moreover, this study suggests that when individuals join members of the opposite sex there is a clear tendency to stop holding mobile phones whilst walking. Although it is not clear why people hold their phones whilst walking in such large proportions (38% of solitary women, and 31% of solitary men), we highlight several possible explanation for holding the device, including the need to advertise status and affluence, to maintain immediate connection with friends and family, and to mitigate feelings related to anxiety and security.Comment: To appear in "Behaviour". 21 pages; 7 figures; Appendix in journal version onl

Nonabelianization of Higgs bundles

The character varieties of representations of a surface group into the Lie groups SL(m,H), SO(2m,H) and Sp(m,m) have a holomorphic description in terms of the moduli space of Higgs bundles. We show that the fibres of the integrable system in these cases are not abelian varieties, but are instead moduli spaces of rank 2 bundles on a spectral curve, satisfying natural stability conditions