Evolution of cooperation is a robust outcome in the prisoner's dilemma on dynamic networks

Abstract

Dynamics of evolutionary games strongly depend on underlying networks. We study the coevolutionary prisoner's dilemma in which players change their local networks as well as strategies (i.e., cooperate or defect). This topic has been increasingly explored by many researchers. On the basis of active linking dynamics [J. M. Pacheco et al., J. Theor. Biol. 243, 437 (2006), J. M. Pacheco et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 258103 (2006)], we show that cooperation is enhanced fairly robustly. In particular, cooperation evolves when the payoff of the player is normalized by the number of neighbors; this is not the case in the evolutionary prisoner's dilemma on static networks.