title: Potts model for exaggeration of a simple rumor transmitted by recreant rumormongers.
abstract: A simple rumor transmitted by recreant rumormongers is considered quantitatively. The simple message contained in the rumor is represented by a simple proposition that has been universally quantified. The operations to change the proposition by rumormongers are established. To describe the rumor's transmission along different channels mathematically, a spin chain is introduced, in which spins represent the operations. The addition of spins is established according to the laws of operations. The result of a rumor's transmission is given by the chain's spin sum. The model, which is favorable for a social prognostication, can determine quantitatively how the social guide and the competition among various opinions affect the exaggeration of the simple rumor transmitted by recreant rumormongers. It proves that the rumor forms Potts-like spin chains in the case with maximum information entropy. The approximate calculation shows that the rumor may be aggrandized little or aggrandized normally, even sometimes catastrophically. Moreover, the exaggeration is greater when the guide is larger and the competition is lower.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Z
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Shao