Introduction to the statistical theory of Darwinian evolution

Abstract

These lectures contain a brief description of evolutionary models inspired by the statistical mechanics of disordered systems. After an introduction describing the Darwinian paradigm of evolving populations, the deterministic quasispecies equation is described, and the simplest fitness landscapes are discussed. The effect of finite population size is then considered, from the opposing points of view leading to stochastic escape and to adaptive walks. A synthesis is attempted. Finally the effects of coevolution are considered, and the promising models of large-scale inspired by the Bak-Sneppen models are described.

27 pages, no figures

References in corpus (4)

• Error threshold in simple landscapes
• A Population Genetic Approach to the Quasispecies Model
• A Simple Model of Evolution with Variable System Size
• An exactly solved model of biological evolution

Cited by in corpus (12)

• Stochastic Models of Evolution in Genetics, Ecology and Linguistics
• Complex and Adaptive Dynamical Systems: A Primer
• The Tangled Nature model as an evolving quasi-species model
• Asymptotic regime in N random interacting species
• Stronger selection can slow down evolution driven by recombination on a smooth fitness landscape
• An evolutionary model for simple ecosystems
• A model of sympatric speciation through assortative mating
• Extending the applicability of Thermal Dynamics to Evolutionary Biology
• Ultrametric identities in glassy models of Natural Evolution
• Inverse Ising techniques to infer underlying mechanisms from data
• Tempo and mode in quasispecies evolution
• Evolutionary models for simple biosystems