Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Vinkovic D
PROVIDER: S-EPMC1748214 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Dec
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Vinkovic Dejan D Kirman Alan A
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 20061206 51
We present a mathematical link between Schelling's socio-economic model of segregation and the physics of clustering. We replace the economic concept of "utility" by the physics concept of a particle's internal energy. As a result cluster dynamics is driven by the "surface tension" force. The resultant segregated areas can be very large and can behave like spherical "liquid" droplets or as a collection of static clusters in "frozen" form. This model will hopefully provide a useful framework for ...[more]