Towards the construction of a mathematically rigorous framework for the modelling of evolutionary fitness (Q2283913)

The main goal of the work is to determine the mathematical function expressing the relationship between the observed life traits or behavior (\textit{a priori} information) and the long-term success of evolution. To this end, the idea and the basic model of selection processes, based on the study of the long-term dynamics of measures in the strategy space, have been expanded. The case of evolutionary suitability in self-replicating systems is considered, when the space of inherited units is an arbitrary functional space (covering the parameters of the scalar attribute of life, as well as functionally significant behavioral signs and their combinations). First, the ranking order of competing sets of strategies is introduced, using the basic equations of population dynamics, then a mathematically rigorous definition of evolutionary suitability is introduced, which is based on the ranking order of strategies. It is shown that the relationship between measures and densities in the strategy space is a series of mathematical problems that should be taken into account when modeling selection processes using the density-based approach. Based on the new formulation of evolutionary suitability, the variational principle of selection modeling is defined, which postulates that the long-term result of the selection process will correspond to a strategy or trait that maximizes evolutionary suitability. The latter can be obtained for a class of models with age-related structuring, including the delay, which was previously considered as a mathematical problem. The idea of suitability is closely related to the concept of ranking strategies, determined by the long-term limit of the ratio of their densities. The proposed approach is general, and can be applied to modeling selection in chemistry, sociology, turbulence theory, and economics. However, it is necessary to carefully implement the density-based modeling structure and compare specific strategies with each other only under certain mathematical constraints (uniform convergence).