Pathwise thermodynamic structure in population dynamics

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2015 Mar;91(3):032120. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.91.032120. Epub 2015 Mar 12.

Abstract

We reveal thermodynamic structure in population dynamics with phenotype switching. Mean fitness for a population of organisms is determined by a thermodynamic variational principle described by the large deviation of phenotype-switching dynamics. Owing to this variational principle, a response relation of the mean fitness with respect to changes of environments and phenotype-switching dynamics is represented as a thermodynamic differential form. Furthermore, we discuss the strength of the selection by using the difference between time-forward and time-backward (retrospective) processes.