Kinetic theory for the emergence of complex behavior in social and economic systems


Network Dynamics: From HIV Simulations to Mean Field Models

Benjamin Armbruster

Northwestern University

Abstract:  

I present an agent-based/network simulation of the effects of polygamy on HIV spread in Africa. Then I briefly discuss stochastic processes on networks and what can be proven about them, before giving a tutorial on the canonical static and dynamic random social network models (the ERGM/p* model and the stochastic actor model respectively) that are widely used in practice to fit social network datasets. I conclude by conjecturing that mean-field models may be good approximations for stochastic processes on such networks.