On the stationary measures of two variants of the voter model

TL;DR

This paper characterizes the stationary measures of two variants of the voter model by analyzing the dual coalescing random walks, including models with opinion swapping and on dynamical percolation environments.

Contribution

It provides a novel characterization of stationary measures for voter model variants through duality with coalescing random walks, including complex swapping and dynamical environments.

Findings

Stationary measures linked to random walk collision properties.

Analysis of coalescing random walks with opinion swapping.

Characterization of voter model on dynamical percolation.

Abstract

In the voter model, vertices of a graph (interpreted as voters) adopt one out of two opinions (0 and 1), and update their opinions at random times by copying the opinion of a neighbor chosen uniformly at random. This process is dual to a system of coalescing random walks. The duality implies that the set of stationary measures of the voter model on a graph is linked to the dynamics of the collision of random walks on this graph. By exploring the key ideas behind this relationship, we characterize the sets of stationary measures for two variations of the voter model: first, a version that incorporates interchanging of opinions among voters, and second, the voter model on dynamical percolation. To achieve these results, we analyze the collision properties of random walks in two contexts: first, with a swapping behavior that complicates collisions, and second, with random walks defined on a dynamical percolation environment.