Gissel Estrada-Rodriguez (Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya)

The seminar will take place on Zoom at the following link: https://univ-cotedazur.zoom.us/j/5698369814Short URLNone\nTitle: \nDecision making in heterogeneous self-propelled particle systems\nAbstract : \nWe investigate the role of uninformed individuals in consensus formation within opinion-swarming models for self-propelled particles, inspired by empirical observations of collective behaviour in animal groups such as schooling fish. We introduce a coupled framework in which each individual is described by its position, velocity, and a continuous opinion variable, and interacts through self-propulsion, alignment, attraction-repulsion forces, and opinion-based mechanisms. Building on bounded-confidence models, we distinguish between leaders, followers, and uninformed individuals in a three-population setting. Our results show that uninformed individuals, despite having no intrinsic opinion bias, can strongly shape collective dynamics by weakening leader influence and promoting more democratic decision-making. Numerical simulations reveal a range of emergent behaviours, including flocking and milling, and provide insight into the interplay between leadership, opinion consensus, and spatial self-organisation in heterogeneous crowds.\n\nhttps://indico.math.cnrs.fr/event/16152/