Stochastic Models of Evolution in Genetics, Ecology and Linguistics

TL;DR

This paper reviews stochastic models of evolution across genetics, ecology, and linguistics, emphasizing neutral models that are often exactly solvable and help explain observed system features.

Contribution

It provides an accessible overview of neutral stochastic evolution models and highlights their solvability and relevance to real-world systems.

Findings

Neutral models are often exactly solvable.

These models help explain features of genetic, ecological, and linguistic systems.

The overview is aimed at non-specialists, especially statistical physicists.

Abstract

We give a overview of stochastic models of evolution that have found applications in genetics, ecology and linguistics for an audience of nonspecialists, especially statistical physicists. In particular, we focus mostly on neutral models in which no intrinsic advantage is ascribed to a particular type of the variable unit, for example a gene, appearing in the theory. In many cases these models are exactly solvable and furthermore go some way to describing observed features of genetic, ecological and linguistic systems.