Uniform-in-time transition from discrete dynamics to continuous dynamics in the Cucker–Smale flocking

Abstract

We study a uniform-in-time convergence from the discrete-time (in short, discrete) Cucker–Smale (CS) model to the continuous-time CS model, which is valid for the whole time interval, as time-step tends to zero. Classical theory yields the convergence results which are valid only in any finite-time interval. Our uniform convergence estimate relies on two quantitative estimates “asymptotic flocking estimate” and “uniform[Formula: see text]-stability estimate with respect to initial data”. In the previous literature, most studies on the CS flocking have been devoted to the continuous-time model with general communication weights, whereas flocking estimates have been done for the discrete-time model with special network topologies such as the complete network with algebraically decaying communication weights and rooted leaderships. For the discrete CS model with a regular and algebraically decaying communication weight, asymptotic flocking estimate has been extensively studied in the previous literature. In contrast, for a general decaying communication weight, corresponding flocking dynamics has not been addressed in the literature due to the difficulty of extending the Lyapunov functional approach to the discrete model. In this paper, we present asymptotic flocking estimate for the discrete model using the Lyapunov functional approach. Moreover, we present a uniform [Formula: see text]-stability estimate of the solution for the discrete CS model with respect to initial data. We combine asymptotic flocking estimate and uniform stability to derive a uniform-in-time convergence from the discrete CS model to the continuous CS model, as time-step tends to zero.