Eur. Phys. J. B 64, 285-292 (2008)
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2008-00297-3

Birth and death in a continuous opinion dynamics model

The consensus case

¹ Département de Mathématique, Facultés Universitaires Notre Dame de la Paix, 8 rempart de la vierge B5000 Namur, Belgium
² School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, M13 9PL, Manchester, UK
³ Dipartimento di Energetica and CSDC, Università di Firenze, and INFN, via S. Marta, 3, 50139 Firenze, Italy
⁴ Université de la Polynésie Francaise, BP 6570 Faa'a, 98702, French Polynesia

Corresponding authors: ^a timoteo.carletti@fundp.ac.be - ^b duccio.fanelli@manchester.ac.uk - ^c alessio.guarino@upf.pf - ^d franco.bagnoli@unifi.it - ^e andrea.guazzini@unifi.it

Received: 5 December 2007
Revised: 23 June 2008
Published online: 23 July 2008

Abstract

We here discuss the process of opinion formation in an open community where agents are made to interact and consequently update their beliefs. New actors (birth) are assumed to replace individuals that abandon the community (deaths). This dynamics is simulated in the framework of a simplified model that accounts for mutual affinity between agents. A rich phenomenology is presented and discussed with reference to the original (closed group) setting. Numerical findings are supported by analytical calculations.