Particle Statistics and Population Dynamics

Abstract

We study a master equation system modelling a population dynamics problem in a lattice. The problem is the calculation of the minimum size of a refuge that can protect a population from hostile external conditions, the so called critical patch size problem. We analize both cases in which the particles are considered fermions and bosons and show using exact analitical methods that, while the Fermi-Dirac statistics leads to certain extinction for any refuge size, the Bose-Eistein statistics allows survival even for the minimal refuge.