Optimal control of the freezing time in the Hegselmann–Krause dynamics

Abstract

We study the optimal control problem of minimizing the freezing time in the discrete Hegselmann–Krause (HK) model of opinion dynamics. The underlying model is extended with a set of strategic agents that can freely place their opinion at every time step. Indeed, if suitably coordinated, the strategic agents can significantly lower the freezing time of an instance of the HK model. We give several lower and upper worst-case bounds for the freezing time of a HK system with a given number of strategic agents, while still leaving some gaps for future research.