Non-fixation in infinite potential

Abstract

Under the effects of strong genetic drift, it is highly probable to observe gene fixation or loss in a population, shown by divergent probability density functions, or infinite adaptive peaks on a landscape. It is then interesting to ask what such infinite peaks imply, with or without combining other biological factors (e.g. mutation and selection). We study the stochastic escape time from the generated infinite adaptive peaks, and show that Kramers' classical escape formula can be extended to the non-Gaussian distribution cases. The constructed landscape provides a global description for system's middle and long term behaviors, breaking the constraints in previous methods.