Irreversible Opinion Spreading on Complex Networks

CANDIA, JULIÁN

Queens, NYC (USA)

Conferencia; NetSci 2007; 2007

Center for Complex Networks Research

We study the dynamical and critical behavior of a model for irreversible opinion spreading on small-world and scale-free networks by performing extensive Monte Carlo simulations. The opinion spreading is investigated by means of the magnetic Eden model, a nonequilibrium kinetic model for the growth of binary mixtures in contact with a thermal bath. Systems of finite size grow either ordered or disordered, depending on the temperature. These effective order-disorder phase transitions are extrapolated to the thermodynamic limit using standard finite-size scaling procedures. The existence of true critical transitions is found to be highly dependent on the topology of the complex network substrate: in the case of small-world networks, the system is critical for any positive shortcut density, but noncritical in the regular lattice limit; in the case of Barabasi-Albert scale-free networks, the system is critical, but when considering uncorrelated scale-free networks, criticality depends on the degree exponent. Similarities and differences with results reported recently in the investigation of related equilibrium systems are also discussed.