Opinion dynamics model with domain size dependent dynamics: novel features and new universality class

A model for opinion dynamics (Model I) has been recently introduced in which the binary opinions of the individuals are determined according to the size of their neighboring domains (population having the same opinion). The coarsening dynamics of the equivalent Ising model shows power law behavior and has been found to belong to a new universality class with the dynamic exponent z = 1.0 +/- 0.01 and persistence exponent theta similar or equal to 0.235 in one dimension. The critical behavior has been found to be robust for a large variety of annealed disorder that has been studied. Further, by mapping Model I to a system of random walkers in one dimension with a tendency to walk towards their nearest neighbour with probability epsilon, we find that for any epsilon > 0.5, the Model I dynamical behaviour is prevalentat long times.