Fixation for Distributed Clustering Processes

Abstract

We study a discrete-time resource flow in $Z^d$, where wealthier vertices attract the resources of their less rich neighbors. For any translation-invariant probability distribution of initial resource quantities, we prove that the flow at each vertex terminates after finitely many steps. This answers (a generalized version of) a question posed by van den Berg and Meester in 1991. The proof uses the mass-transport principle and extends to other graphs.