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- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
- Resource Type: Text
Description
Serge Galams voting systems and public debate models are used to model voting behaviors of two competing opinions in democratic societies. Galam assumes that individuals in the population are independently in favor of one opinion with a fixed probability p, making the initial number of that type of opinion a binomial random variable. This analysis revisits Galams models from the point of view of the hypergeometric random variable by assuming the initial number of individuals in favor of an opinion is a fixed deterministic number. This assumption is more realistic, especially when analyzing small populations. Evolution of the models is based on majority rules, with a bias introduced when there is a tie. For the hier- archical voting system model, in order to derive the probability that opinion +1 would win, the analysis was done by reversing time and assuming that an individual in favor of opinion +1 wins. Then, working backwards we counted the number of configurations at the next lowest level that could induce each possible configuration at the level above, and continued this process until reaching the bottom level, i.e., the initial population. Using this method, we were able to derive an explicit formula for the probability that an individual in favor of opinion +1 wins given any initial count of that opinion, for any group size greater than or equal to three. For the public debate model, we counted the total number of individuals in favor of opinion +1 at each time step and used this variable to define a random walk. Then, we used first-step analysis to derive an explicit formula for the probability that an individual in favor of opinion +1 wins given any initial count of that opinion for group sizes of three. The spatial public debate model evolves based on the proportional rule. For the spatial model, the most natural graphical representation to construct the process results in a model that is not mathematically tractable. Thus, we defined a different graphical representation that is mathematically equivalent to the first graphical representation, but in this model it is possible to define a dual process that is mathematically tractable. Using this graphical representation we prove clustering in 1D and 2D and coexistence in higher dimensions following the same approach as for the voter model interacting particle system.
ContributorsTaylor, Nicole Robyn (Co-author) / Lanchier, Nicolas (Co-author, Thesis director) / Smith, Hal (Committee member) / Hurlbert, Glenn (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
The dissipative shallow-water equations (SWE) possess both real-world application and extensive analysis in theoretical partial differential equations. This analysis is dominated by modeling the dissipation as diffusion, with its mathematical representation being the Laplacian. However, the usage of the biharmonic as a dissipative operator by oceanographers and atmospheric scientists and its underwhelming amount of analysis indicates a gap in SWE theory. In order to provide rigorous mathematical justification for the utilization of these equations in simulations with real-world implications, we extend an energy method utilized by Matsumura and Nishida for initial value problems relating to the equations of motion for compressible, vsicous, heat-conductive fluids ([6], [7]) and applied by Kloeden to the diffusive SWE ([4]) to prove global time existence of classical solutions to the biharmonic SWE. In particular, we develop appropriate a priori growth estimates that allow one to extend the solution's temporal existence infinitely under sufficient constraints on initial data and external forcing, resulting in convergence to steady-state.
ContributorsKofroth, Collin Michael (Author) / Jones, Don (Thesis director) / Smith, Hal (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05