Game dynamics, mixed strategies, and gradient systems (Q1089282)

Game dynamics, as a branch of frequency-dependent population genetics, leads to replicator equations. If phenotypes correspond to mixed strategies, evolution will affect the frequencies of the phenotypes and of strategies, thus leading to two dynamical models. Some examples, including the sex ratio, are discussed with the help of a non-Euclidean metric leading to a gradient system. With respect to a non-Euclidean metric, such gradient systems occur in several fields of theoretical biology. Examples from population genetics, chemical kinetics and mathematical ecology support the usefulness of such gradients in describing evolutionary optimisation.