Berlin 2015 – scientific programme

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SOE: Fachverband Physik sozio-ökonomischer Systeme

SOE 11: Evolutionary Game Theory II (joint session BP / SOE / DY)

SOE 11.1: Talk

Tuesday, March 17, 2015, 14:00–14:15, MA 001

Frequency-Dependent Selection at Rough Expanding Fronts — •Jan-Timm Kuhr and Holger Stark — Institut für Theoretische Physik, Technische Universität Berlin

Microbial colonies are a formidable model system to study longstanding questions of population dynamics, ecology, and evolutionary dynamics. Growth on surfaces naturally allows to observe range expansions, where microbes colonize new territory. The small number of reproducing individuals introduces strong demoscopic fluctuations, which interact with mutation and selection at the front.

We use generalized Eden models to explore statistical properties of multi-species range expansions, where the front’s geometry and evolutionary dynamics couple to each other. In earlier work we found that irreversible mutations entail a new type of non-equilibrium phase transition accompanied by enhanced surface roughening [1].

If reproduction rates depend on local species composition, we distinguish a variety of patterns. Focusing on social dilemmas, we obtain new exponents for both kinetic roughening and the transition between global defection vs. global cooperation. This is also reflected in the dynamics of single species domains which at large times show enhanced fluctuation statistics.
[1] J.-T. Kuhr, M. Leisner, and E. Frey, New J. Phys. 13, 113013 (2011).