2004/08/04 by Krzysztof Suchecki, Victor M. Eguiluz, Victor M. Eguı́luz +2 · 5 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Opinion Dynamics and Social Influence #Theoretical and Computational Physics #cond-mat.other
paper · pdf · doi:10.1209/epl/i2004-10329-8
published as Europhysics Letters 69, 228-234 (2005) · 5 pages, 4 figures; for related material please visit http://www.imedea.uib.es
arxiv created 2004/08/04 · openalex publication_date 2004/12/16 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
We consider the voter model dynamics in random networks with an arbitrary distribution of the degree of the nodes. We find that for the usual node-update dynamics the average magnetization is not conserved, while an average magnetization weighted by the degree of the node is conserved. However, for a link-update dynamics the average magnetization is still conserved. For the particular case of a Barabási-Albert scale-free network, the voter model dynamics leads to a partially ordered metastable state with a finite-size survival time. This characteristic time scales linearly with system size only when the updating rule respects the conservation law of the average magnetization. This scaling identifies a universal or generic property of the voter model dynamics associated with the conservation law of the magnetization.