TY - JOUR
T1 - Statistical mechanics of competitive resource allocation using agent-based models
AU - Chakraborti, Anirban
AU - Challet, Damien
AU - Chatterjee, Arnab
AU - Marsili, Matteo
AU - Zhang, Yi Cheng
AU - Chakrabarti, Bikas K.
PY - 2015/1/25
Y1 - 2015/1/25
N2 - Demand outstrips available resources in most situations, which gives rise to competition, interaction and learning. In this article, we review a broad spectrum of multi-agent models of competition (El Farol Bar problem, Minority Game, Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem, Stable marriage problem, Parking space problem and others) and the methods used to understand them analytically. We emphasize the power of concepts and tools from statistical mechanics to understand and explain fully collective phenomena such as phase transitions and long memory, and the mapping between agent heterogeneity and physical disorder. As these methods can be applied to any large-scale model of competitive resource allocation made up of heterogeneous adaptive agent with non-linear interaction, they provide a prospective unifying paradigm for many scientific disciplines.
AB - Demand outstrips available resources in most situations, which gives rise to competition, interaction and learning. In this article, we review a broad spectrum of multi-agent models of competition (El Farol Bar problem, Minority Game, Kolkata Paise Restaurant problem, Stable marriage problem, Parking space problem and others) and the methods used to understand them analytically. We emphasize the power of concepts and tools from statistical mechanics to understand and explain fully collective phenomena such as phase transitions and long memory, and the mapping between agent heterogeneity and physical disorder. As these methods can be applied to any large-scale model of competitive resource allocation made up of heterogeneous adaptive agent with non-linear interaction, they provide a prospective unifying paradigm for many scientific disciplines.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84921022184&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.physrep.2014.09.006
DO - 10.1016/j.physrep.2014.09.006
M3 - Review Article
AN - SCOPUS:84921022184
SN - 0370-1573
VL - 552
SP - 1
EP - 25
JO - PHYSICS REPORTS: REVIEW SECTION OF PHYSICS LETTERS
JF - PHYSICS REPORTS: REVIEW SECTION OF PHYSICS LETTERS
ER -