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A pedestrian review of games on structured populations

Evolutionary games on heterogeneous structures

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Abstract

Understanding the mechanisms of evolution of cooperation and its sustenance has gathered momentum since the last few decades of the twentieth century. However, the complete picture is yet to emerge. Evolutionary game theory aims to model evolutionary dynamics in a population by drawing on the principles of game theory. Spatially restricted interactions, such as in ecological systems, are rather common in nature. When interactions among the individuals in a population are structured, the outcome of the game is significantly different from that of a well-mixed population. In this mini-review, targeted towards a very broad audience of all backgrounds, we summarise some of the critical research by evolutionary biologists, computer scientists, mathematicians and physicists on evolutionary games in structured populations. We also discuss the influence of structure on evolutionary games in diverse scenarios ranging from laboratory environments to multiplex networks. Along the way, we also try to harmonise a few conflicting results in the literature.

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  1. Department of Physics, Bose Institute, 93/1 Acharya Prafulla Chandra Road, Kolkata, WB, 700 009, India

    Saptarshi Sinha, Susanta Ghosh & Soumen Roy

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  1. Saptarshi Sinha
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Sinha, S., Ghosh, S. & Roy, S. A pedestrian review of games on structured populations. Int J Adv Eng Sci Appl Math 11, 138–152 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12572-018-0241-x

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