Influence Enhancement in Opinion Dynamics Using Edge Modification: A Kron Reduction-Based Approach

Twinkle Tripathy studies how changing connections in a social network can increase the influence of a selected stubborn agent under the Friedkin–Johnsen model of opinion dynamics. The proposed edge changes resemble recommendation mechanisms in online networks. The talk identifies topological conditions under which these modifications consistently increase the chosen agent’s influence, with effects that remain robust when stubbornness parameters and interaction weights change. Demonstrations on Erdős–Rényi random graphs illustrate the approach.