Diffusion, peer pressure and tailed distributions

Fabio Cecconi; Matteo Marsili; Jayanth R. Banavar; Amos Maritan

doi:10.1103/physrevlett.89.088102

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Diffusion, peer pressure and tailed distributions

Fabio Cecconi·Matteo Marsili·Jayanth R. Banavar·Amos Maritan

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Abstract

We present a general, physically motivated non-linear and non-local advection equation in which the diffusion of interacting random walkers competes with a local drift arising from a kind of peer pressure. We show, using a mapping to an integrable dynamical system, that on varying a parameter, the steady state behaviour undergoes a transition from the standard diffusive behavior to a localized stationary state characterized by a tailed distribution. Finally, we show that recent empirical laws on economic growth can be explained as a collective phenomenon due to peer pressure interaction.

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Fabio Cecconi, Matteo Marsili, Jayanth R. Banavar, Amos Maritan. 2002-07-02. Diffusion, peer pressure and tailed distributions. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.89.088102

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