No Arabic abstract
We use the results of a pedestrian tracking experiment to identify a follow-the-leader model for pedestrians walking-in-line. We demonstrate the existence of a time-delay between a subjects response and the predecessors corresponding behavior. This time-delay induces an instability which can be damped out by a suitable relaxation. By comparisons with the experimental data, we show that the model reproduces well the emergence of large-scale structures such as congestions waves. The resulting model can be used either for modeling pedestrian queuing behavior or can be incorporated into bi-dimensional models of pedestrian traffic. Acknowledgements: This work has been supported by the french Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR) in the frame of the contract Pedigree (ANR-08-SYSC-015-01). JH acknowledges support of the ANR and the Institut de Math{e}matiques de Toulouse, where he conducted this research. AJ acknowledges support of the ANR and of the Laboratoire de physique t A c orique in Orsay where she conducted this research. PD is on leave from CNRS, Institut de Mat A c matiques de Toulouse, France.
Here we study the emergence of spontaneous leadership in large populations. In standard models of opinion dynamics, herding behavior is only obeyed at the local scale due to the interaction of single agents with their neighbors; while at the global scale, such models are governed by purely diffusive processes. Surprisingly, in this paper we show that the combination of a strong separation of time scales within the population and a hierarchical organization of the influences of some agents on the others induces a phase transition between a purely diffusive phase, as in the standard case, and a herding phase where a fraction of the agents self-organize and lead the global opinion of the whole population.
In the name of meritocracy, modern economies devote increasing amounts of resources to quantifying and ranking the performance of individuals and organisations. Rankings send out powerful signals, which lead to identify the actions of top performers as the `best practices that others should also adopt. However, several studies have shown that the imitation of best practices often leads to a drop in performance. So, should those lagging behind in a ranking imitate top performers or should they instead pursue a strategy of their own? I tackle this question by numerically simulating a stylised model of a society whose agents seek to climb a ranking either by imitating the actions of top performers or by randomly trying out different actions, i.e., via serendipity. The model gives rise to a rich phenomenology, showing that the imitation of top performers increases welfare overall, but at the cost of higher inequality. Indeed, the imitation of top performers turns out to be a self-defeating strategy that consolidates the early advantage of a few lucky - and not necessarily talented - winners, leading to a very unequal, homogenised, and effectively non-meritocratic society. Conversely, serendipity favours meritocratic outcomes and prevents rankings from freezing.
Hierarchical networks are prevalent in nature and society, corresponding to groups of actors - animals, humans or even robots - organised according to a pyramidal structure with decision makers at the top and followers at the bottom. While this phenomenon is seemingly universal, the underlying governing principles are poorly understood. Here we study the emergence of hierarchies in groups of people playing a simple dot guessing game in controlled experiments, lasting for about 40 rounds, conducted over the Internet. During the games, the players had the possibility to look at the answer of a limited number of other players of their choice. This act of asking for advice defines a directed connection between the involved players, and according to our analysis, the initial random configuration of the emerging networks became more structured overt time, showing signs of hierarchy towards the end of the game. In addition, the achieved score of the players appeared to be correlated with their position in the hierarchy. These results indicate that under certain conditions imitation and limited knowledge about the performance of other actors is sufficient for the emergence of hierarchy in a social group.
Different families of models first developed for fluid mechanics have been extended to road, pedestrian, or intracellular transport. These models allow to describe the systems at different scales and to account for different aspects of dynamics. In this paper, we focus on pedestrians and illustrate the various families of models by giving an example of each type. We discuss the specificities of crowds compared to other transport systems.
We calculate masses of the technipions in the walking technicolor model with the anomalous dimension gamma_m =1, based on a holographic model which has a naturally light technidilaton phi as a composite Higgs with mass m_phi simeq 125 GeV. The one-family model (with 4 weak-doublets) is taken as a concrete example in such a framework, with the inputs being F_pi=v/2 simeq 123 GeV and m_phi simeq 125 GeV as well as gamma_m=1. It is shown that technipion masses are enhanced by the large anomalous dimension to typically O(1) TeV. We find a correlation between the technipion masses and S^{(TC)}, the S parameter arising only from the technicolor sector. The current LHC data on the technipion mass limit thus constrains S^{(TC)} to be not as large as O(1), giving a direct constraint on the technicolor model building. This is a new constraint on the technicolor sector alone quite independent of other sector connected by the extended-technicolor-type interactions, in sharp contrast to the conventional S parameter constraint from the precision electroweak measurements.