Mono-cluster flocking and uniform-in-time stability of the discrete Motsch-Tadmor model

Abstract: The Motsch-Tadmor (MT) model is a variant of the Cucker-Smale model with a normalized communication weight function. The normalization poses technical challenges in analyzing the collective behavior due to the absence of conservation of momentum. We study three quantitative estimates for the discrete-time MT model considering the first-order Euler discretization. First, we provide a sufficient framework leading to the asymptotic mono-cluster flocking. The proposed framework is given in terms of coupling strength, communication weight function, and initial data. Second, we show that the continuous transition from the discrete MT model to the continuous MT model can be made uniformly in time using the finite-time convergence result and asymptotic flocking estimate. Third, we present uniform-in-time stability estimates for the discrete MT model. We also provide several numerical examples and compare them with analytical results.