Phase Diagram: Clusters vs ε
Model & Theory
Deffuant update rule:
If |x_i − x_j| ≤ ε:
x_i ← x_i + μ(x_j − x_i)
x_j ← x_j + μ(x_i − x_j)
Critical threshold: ε_c ≈ 0.5/k
k = expected number of opinion clusters
ε > 0.5 → consensus; ε ≈ 0.2 → ~2 clusters
Polarization at small ε (echo chambers)
Agents—
Iterations0
Clusters—
Max cluster size—
Polarization index—