Agent-Based Social Simulation: a Dynamical-Systems Viewpoint

Physics is expanding outward from its traditional base; nowadays many physicists work on phenomena involving biology, economics, and sociology. How can we get to grips with physics in these fields where traditional equation-based modelling is difficult to implement? The so-called audience or Mexican Wave in sports stadia, in which participants jump up and raise their arms in a coordinated manner so that a wave propagates around the stadium, is an instance where structures familiar to physicists— nonlinear waves or solitons—appear in the novel context of sociophysics. Using the example of the Mexican Wave, I discuss new approaches based on cellular automata and agent-based models, and how these may be related to classical continuum physics.