  The adaptive voter model has been widely studied as a conceptual model for
opinion formation processes on time-evolving social networks. Past studies on
the effect of zealots, i.e. nodes aiming to spread their fixed opinion
throughout the system, only considered the voter model on a static network.
Here, we extend the study of zealotry to the case of an adaptive network
topology co-evolving with the state of the nodes and investigate opinion
spreading induced by zealots depending on their initial density and
connectedness. Numerical simulations reveal that below the fragmentation
threshold a low density of zealots is sufficient to spread their opinion to the
whole network. Beyond the transition point, zealots must exhibit an increased
degree as compared to ordinary nodes for an efficient spreading of their
opinion. We verify the numerical findings using a mean-field approximation of
the model yielding a low-dimensional set of coupled ordinary differential
equations. Our results imply that the spreading of the zealot opinion in the
adaptive voter model is strongly dependent on the rate of link rewiring and the
average degree of normal nodes in comparison with that of the zealots. In order
to avoid a complete dominance of the zealots' opinion, there are two possible
strategies for the remaining nodes: adjusting the rate of rewiring and/or the
number of connections with other nodes, respectively.
