arXiv subjects

Rosa M. Benito

Publications and source records attributed to Rosa M. Benito.

8 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Relationship between ideology and language in the Catalan independence context

Political polarization generates strong effects on society, driving controversial debates and influencing the institutions. Territorial disputes are one of the most important polarized scenarios and have been consistently related to the use of language. In this work, we analyzed the opinion and language distributions through Twitter data of a particular territorial dispute around the independence of Catalonia. We infer a continuous opinion distribution by applying a model based on retweet interactions, previously detecting elite users with fixed and antagonist opinions. The resulting distribution presents a mainly bimodal behavior with an intermediate third pole that shows a less polarized society with the presence of not only antagonist opinions. We find that the more active, engaged and influential users hold more extreme positions. Also we prove that there is a clear relationship between political positions and the use of language, showing that against independence users speak mainly Spanish while pro-independence users speak Catalan and Spanish almost indistinctly. However, the third pole, closer in political opinion to the pro-independence pole, behaves similarly to the against-independence one concerning the use of language.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2026

Impact of individual actions on the collective response of social systems

In a social system individual actions have the potential to trigger spontaneous collective reactions. The way and extent to which the activity (number of actions$-A$) of an individual causes or is connected to the response (number of reactions$-R$) of the system is still an open question. We measure the relationship between activity and response with the distribution of efficiency, a metric defined as $η=R/A$. Generalizing previous results, we show that the efficiency distribution presents a universal structure in three systems of different nature: Twitter, Wikipedia and the scientific citations network. To understand this phenomenon, we develop a theoretical framework composed of three minimal statistical models that contemplate different levels of dependence between $A$ and $R$. The models not only are able to reproduce the empirical activity-response data but also can serve as baselines or null models for more elaborated and domain-specific approaches.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2026

Recurrent patterns of user behavior in different electoral campaigns: A Twitter analysis of the Spanish general elections of 2015 and 2016

We have retrieved and analyzed several millions of Twitter messages corresponding to the Spanish General elections held on the 20th of December 2015 and repeated on the 26th of June 2016. The availability of data from two electoral campaigns that are very close in time allows us to compare collective behaviors of two analogous social systems with a similar context. By computing and analyzing the time series of daily activity, we have found a significant linear correlation between both elections. Additionally, we have revealed that the daily number of tweets, retweets and mentions follow a power law with respect to the number of unique users that take part in the conversation. Furthermore, we have verified that the topologies of the networks of mentions and retweets do not change from one election to the other, indicating that their underlying dynamics are robust in the face of a change in social context. Hence, in the light of our results, there are several recurrent collective behavioral patterns that exhibit similar and consistent properties in different electoral campaigns.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Multipolar social systems: Measuring polarization beyond dichotomous contexts

Social polarization is a growing concern worldwide, as it strains social relations, erodes trust in institutions, and thus threatens democratic societies. Academic efforts to understand this phenomenon have traditionally approached it from a one-dimensional perspective, focusing on bipolar or dichotomous systems. However, political conflicts often involve not only two, but multiple potentially dissenting factions. The most representative examples are multi-party democracies, where the multilateral tensions among different parties often lead to gridlock and uncertainty. Despite the prevalence of these multipolar systems, there is still a lack of suitable analytical tools to study their intricate polarization patterns. In this work, we develop an analytical framework consisting of an inherently multipolar model for unbiased ideological spaces, a method to infer multidimensional opinions from interaction networks, and novel multidimensional polarization metrics that quantify several aspects of ideological polarization and bring new insights into the analysis of high-dimensional opinion distributions. Crucially, our multidimensional framework does not assume the underlying ideological structure, such as conservative vs progressive, liberal vs authoritarian, etc. Instead, it reveals the natural space that best describes the social landscape, which does not necessarily correspond to traditional categories. We illustrate the application of this framework in quadripolar and pentapolar real-world democratic processes, finding non-trivial ideological structures with clear connections to the underlying social context. Our methodology offers a comprehensive perspective of multilateral social tensions, as it incorporates complementary aspects of polarization: network segregation, opinion extremeness, and issue alignment.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2022

Mean first-passage times for solvated LiCN isomerization at intermediate to high temperatures

The behavior of a particle in a solvent has been framed using stochastic dynamics since the early theory of Kramers. A particle in a chemical reaction reacts slower in a diluted solvent because of the lack of energy transfer via collisions. The flux-over-population reaction rate constant rises with increasing density before falling again for very dense solvents. This Kramers turnover is observed in this paper at intermediate and high temperatures in the backward reaction of the LiNC $\rightleftharpoons$ LiCN isomerization via Langevin dynamics and mean first-passage times (MFPTs). It is in good agreement with the Pollak-Grabert-Hänggi (PGH) reaction rates at lower temperatures. Furthermore, we find a square root behavior of the reaction rate at high temperatures and have made direct comparisons of the methods in the intermediate- and high- temperature regimes; all suggesting increased ranges in accuracy of both the PGH and MFPT approaches.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2021

Identifying Reaction Pathways in Phase Space via Asymptotic Trajectories

In this paper, we revisit the concepts of the reactivity map and the reactivity bands as an alternative to the use of perturbation theory for the determination of the phase space geometry of chemical reactions. We introduce a reformulated metric, called the asymptotic trajectory indicator, and an efficient algorithm to obtain reactivity boundaries. We demonstrate that this method has sufficient accuracy to reproduce phase space structures such as turnstiles for a 1D model of the isomerization of ketene in an external field. The asymptotic trajectory indicator can be applied to higher dimensional systems coupled to Langevin baths as we demonstrate for a 3D model of the isomerization of ketene.

physics.chem-ph↗

arXiv2017

Global Patterns of Synchronization in Human Communications

Social media are transforming global communication and coordination. The data derived from social media can reveal patterns of human behavior at all levels and scales of society. Using geolocated Twitter data, we have quantified collective behaviors across multiple scales, ranging from the commutes of individuals, to the daily pulse of 50 major urban areas and global patterns of human coordination. Human activity and mobility patterns manifest the synchrony required for contingency of actions between individuals. Urban areas show regular cycles of contraction and expansion that resembles heartbeats linked primarily to social rather than natural cycles. Business hours and circadian rhythms influence daily cycles of work, recreation, and sleep. Different urban areas have characteristic signatures of daily collective activities. The differences are consistent with a new emergent global synchrony that couples behavior in distant regions across the world. A globally synchronized peak that includes exchange of ideas and information across Europe, Africa, Asia and Australasia. We propose a dynamical model to explain the emergence of global synchrony in the context of increasing global communication and reproduce the observed behavior. The collective patterns we observe show how social interactions lead to interdependence of behavior manifest in the synchronization of communication. The creation and maintenance of temporally sensitive social relationships results in the emergence of complexity of the larger scale behavior of the social system.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2016

Global Patterns of Human Synchronization

Social media are transforming global communication and coordination and provide unprecedented opportunities for studying socio-technical domains. Here we study global dynamical patterns of communication on Twitter across many scales. Underlying the observed patterns is both the diurnal rotation of the earth, day and night, and the synchrony required for contingency of actions between individuals. We find that urban areas show a cyclic contraction and expansion that resembles heartbeats linked to social rather than natural cycles. Different urban areas have characteristic signatures of daily collective activities. We show that the differences detected are consistent with a new emergent global synchrony that couples behavior in distant regions across the world. Although local synchrony is the major force that shapes the collective behavior in cities, a larger-scale synchronization is beginning to occur.

physics.soc-ph↗