Abstract
We analyze the effect of cultural drift, modeled as noise, in Axelrod’s model for the dissemination of culture. The disordered multicultural frozen configurations are found not to be stable. This general result is proven rigorously in where the dynamics is described in terms of a Lyapunov potential. In the dynamics is governed by the average relaxation time T of perturbations. Noise at a rate induces monocultural configurations, whereas sustains disorder. In the thermodynamic limit, the relaxation time diverges and global polarization persists in spite of a dynamics of local convergence.
- Received 9 May 2002
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.67.045101
©2003 American Physical Society