Assaf, M, Mobilia, M and Roberts, E (2013) Cooperation dilemma in finite populations under fluctuating environments. Physical Review Letters, 111 (23). 238101. 1 - 5 (5). ISSN 0031-9007
Abstract
We present a novel approach allowing the study of rare events, like fixation, under fluctuating environments in evolutionary processes characterized by the dominance of one species. Our treatment consists of mapping the system at hand onto an auxiliary model, exhibiting metastable species coexistence, that can be analyzed semiclassically. This approach enables us to study the interplay between environmental and demographic noise on the statistics of interest. We illustrate our theory on the paradigmatic prisoner's dilemma game whose evolution is described by the probability that cooperators fixate the population and replace all defectors. We analytically and numerically demonstrate that environmental noise may drastically enhance the cooperation fixation probability and even change its functional dependence on the population size. These results indicate that fluctuating environments may sustain and promote a much higher level of cooperation than static settings. We also show that our approach generalizes earlier works, notably in population genetics.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2013 American Physical Society. This is an author produced version of a paper published in Physical Review Letters. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy |
Keywords: | Complex systems; Evolutionary dynamics; Cooperation dilemma; Environmental fluctuations; Stochastic modelling; Semiclassical methods; Fokker-Planck equation; Diffusion equation; Fixation; Theoretical ecology; Microbiology; Theoretical biology; Population genetics; Evolutionary game theory |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Applied Mathematics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 11 Nov 2015 16:34 |
Last Modified: | 11 Nov 2015 16:34 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.238101 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Physical Society |
Identification Number: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.238101 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:87670 |