Well-posedness of the limiting equation of a noisy consensus model in opinion dynamics

This paper establishes the global well-posedness of the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation for a noisy version of the Hegselmann-Krause model. The equation captures the mean-field behavior of a classic multi agent system for opinion dyrignics. We prove the global existence, uniqueness, nonnegativity and regularity of the weak solution. We also exhibit a global stability condition, which delineates a forbidden region for consensus formation. This is the first nonlinear stability result derived for the Hegselmann-Krause model. (C) 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.