Physics-inspired models of social systems
When analyzing social systems, predicting crowd behavior, or studying emergent phenomena in large groups.
Voter Model: Individuals adopt neighbors' opinions
Deffuant Model: Bounded confidence leads to convergence
Sznajd Model: Social validation influences spread
Physics-inspired metrics:
- Degree distribution (power laws)
- Clustering coefficients
- Betweenness centrality
- Community detection (spin models)
Social systems exhibit phase transitions:
# Bounded confidence model
if |opinion_i - opinion_j| < epsilon:
opinion_i += mu * (opinion_j - opinion_i)