Taming the Gerrymander—Statistical physics approach to Political Districting Problem

The Political Districting Problem is mapped to a qq-state Potts model in which the constraints can be written as interactions between sites or external fields acting on the system. Districting into qq voter districts is equivalent to finding the ground state of this qq-state Potts model. We illustrate this by districting Taipei city in its 2008 Legislature Election. Statistical properties of the model are also studied.