Scaling limits for continuous opinion dynamics systems (Q640065)

The paper provides a thorough mathematical analysis of a family of stochastic dynamical systems which has recently been proposed [\textit{C. Castellano}, \textit{S. Fortunato} and \textit{V. Loreto}, ``Statistical physics of social dynamics'', Rev. Mod. Phys. 81, No. 2, 591--646 (2009; \url{doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.81.591})] in order to describe opinion dynamics and, more specifically, it considers the so-called gossip model in which information propagation is restricted to pairwise interactions (exactly like in the Brownian motion). Some results are stated on general state-dependent gossip models for large \(n\). The main interest is related to the global behaviour of opinion dynamics, and, in order to deal with it, the authors introduce a random flow of probability measures, the mean-field of which satisfies a non-linear ordinary differential equation. After the problem is stated in this by now classical form, various theorems are given on the behaviour of the mean-field dynamics. Loosely speaking, the paper comprises of two parts: a construction of the model and an analysis of the non-linear differential equation thus obtained.