Gravity model of mobility

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity_model_of_migration

A model of human mobility inspired by the Newton’s law of Gravity, but with some flexibility regarding how the distance-decaying function should behave exactly (e.g., power-law vs. exponential). This can be thought as the simplest null model because (1) it is natural to assume that the flux should be proportional to the product of mass (population), and (2) it is also natural to assume that there will be fewer people moving between places farther away.

There are also explanations based on the Principle of maximum entropy. See Senior1979from and Slater1978gravity.

Simini2021deep uses Deep learning model to explain the mobility flow.