Abstract

A method for studying the exact properties of a class of inhomogeneous stochastic many-body systems is developed and presented in the framework of a voter model perturbed by the presence of a "zealot," an individual allowed to favor an "opinion." We compute exactly the magnetization of this model and find that in one (1D) and two dimensions (2D) it evolves, algebraically (~t-1/2) in 1D and much slower (~1/lnt) in 2D, towards the unanimity state chosen by the zealot. In higher dimensions the stationary magnetization is no longer uniform: the zealot cannot influence all the individuals. The implications to other physical problems are also pointed out

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