Modelling competition for space: Emergent inefficiency and inequality due to spatial self-organization among a group of crowd-avoiding agents

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Mathew, Ann Mary, Sasidevan, V
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Mathew, Ann Mary
Sasidevan, V
author_facet Mathew, Ann Mary
Sasidevan, V
contents Competition for a limited resource is the hallmark of many complex systems, and often, that resource turns out to be the physical space itself. In this work, we study a novel model designed to elucidate the dynamics and emergence in complex adaptive systems in which agents compete for some spatially spread resource. Specifically, in the model, the dynamics result from the agents trying to position themselves in the quest to avoid physical crowding experienced locally. We characterize in detail the dependence of the emergent behavior of the model on the population density of the system and the individual-level agent traits such as the extent of space an agent considers as her neighborhood, the limit of occupation density one tolerates within that neighborhood, and the information accessibility of the agents about neighborhood occupancy. We show that inefficiency in utilizing physical space shows transition at a specific density and peaks at another distinct density. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the variation of inefficiency relative to the information accessible to the agents exhibits contrasting behavior above and below this second density. We also look into the inequality of resource sharing in the model and show that although inefficiency can be a non-monotonic function of information depending upon the parameters of the model, inequality, in general, decreases with information. Our study sheds light on the role of competition, spatial constraints, and agent traits within complex adaptive systems, offering insights into their emergent behaviors.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_21537
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Modelling competition for space: Emergent inefficiency and inequality due to spatial self-organization among a group of crowd-avoiding agents
Mathew, Ann Mary
Sasidevan, V
Physics and Society
Statistical Mechanics
Competition for a limited resource is the hallmark of many complex systems, and often, that resource turns out to be the physical space itself. In this work, we study a novel model designed to elucidate the dynamics and emergence in complex adaptive systems in which agents compete for some spatially spread resource. Specifically, in the model, the dynamics result from the agents trying to position themselves in the quest to avoid physical crowding experienced locally. We characterize in detail the dependence of the emergent behavior of the model on the population density of the system and the individual-level agent traits such as the extent of space an agent considers as her neighborhood, the limit of occupation density one tolerates within that neighborhood, and the information accessibility of the agents about neighborhood occupancy. We show that inefficiency in utilizing physical space shows transition at a specific density and peaks at another distinct density. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the variation of inefficiency relative to the information accessible to the agents exhibits contrasting behavior above and below this second density. We also look into the inequality of resource sharing in the model and show that although inefficiency can be a non-monotonic function of information depending upon the parameters of the model, inequality, in general, decreases with information. Our study sheds light on the role of competition, spatial constraints, and agent traits within complex adaptive systems, offering insights into their emergent behaviors.
title Modelling competition for space: Emergent inefficiency and inequality due to spatial self-organization among a group of crowd-avoiding agents
topic Physics and Society
Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.21537