Evolutionary game dynamics in inhomogeneous populations

Abstract

To our knowledge, the populations are generally assumed to be homogeneous in the traditional approach to evolutionary game dynamics. Here, we focus on the inhomogeneous populations. A simple model which can describe the inhomogeneity of the populations and a microscopic process which is similar to Moran Process are presented. By studying the replicator dynamics, it is shown that this model also keeps the fixed points unchanged and can affect the speed of converging to the equilibrium state. The fixation probability and the fixation time of this model are computed and discussed. In the inhomogeneous populations, there are different situations that characterize the time scale of evolution; and in each situation, there exists an optimum solution for the time to the equilibrium points, respectively. Moreover, these results on the speed of evolution are valid for infinite and finite populations.