Evolutionary dynamics of group interactions on structured populations: A review

TL;DR

This review discusses recent advances in understanding the evolutionary dynamics of group interactions, such as public goods games, on structured populations using methods from statistical physics, network science, and game theory.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent research on group interactions in structured populations, highlighting interdisciplinary approaches and comparing with well-mixed populations.

Findings

Structured populations show diverse evolutionary outcomes.

Synergy between physics, network science, and game theory enhances understanding.

Group interactions influence pattern formation and equilibrium selection.

Abstract

Interactions among living organisms, from bacteria colonies to human societies, are inherently more complex than interactions among particles and nonliving matter. Group interactions are a particularly important and widespread class, representative of which is the public goods game. In addition, methods of statistical physics have proven valuable for studying pattern formation, equilibrium selection, and self-organisation in evolutionary games. Here we review recent advances in the study of evolutionary dynamics of group interactions on structured populations, including lattices, complex networks and coevolutionary models. We also compare these results with those obtained on well-mixed populations. The review particularly highlights that the study of the dynamics of group interactions, like several other important equilibrium and non-equilibrium dynamical processes in biological, economical and social sciences, benefits from the synergy between statistical physics, network science and evolutionary game theory.