Timo Hirscher: Consensus formation in the Deffuant model

In 2000 Deffuant et al. introduced a mathematical model used in the context of social interaction in large groups: Agents interact pairwise and either approach a compromise if their difference in opinions is below a given threshold or ignore each other if not. The central question hereby is, if the whole group will achieve a general consensus in the long run or split up into incompatible parts.

We studied this model featuring univariate opinions on integer lattices and infinite percolation clusters as underlying interaction networks. The generalization of the model to multivariate opinions was analyzed on the simple network formed by the infinite line graph. (Joint work with O. Häggström)