Quasi-stationary oscillations in game-driven evolutionary dynamics

Abstract

Nonlinear dynamics makes use of attactors to describe asymptotic behavior of complex systems. However, in real life can be unattainable, as achieving them might require time much exceeding all relevant timescales of a system. Therefore, there is an increasing interest in quasi-stationary states, where the system rapidly converges to and remains for a long time, before getting into an absorbing (asymptotic) state. Exemplifying in the famous Dawkins‘ Battle of the Sexes game, we demonstrate that quasi-stationary distributions can produce not simply different, but a much more complex behavior, then the asymptotic ones, that is transient self-sustained oscillations of player numbers and the corresponding non-unimodal probability distribution. We find that parameters of the quasi-stationary limit cycle depend on the population size.