Statistical Physics of Biological Evolution
Guest Lecturer: Joachim Krug
Institute for Biological Physics, University of Cologne
E-mail: jkrug@uni-koeln.de
Summary
The mathematical theory of evolution is concerned with the changes in the genetic composition of populations that occur under the influence of the evolutionary forces of selection, mutation and demographic noise. In its focus on noisy, collective behaviour in large ensembles of (relatively) simple constituents it displays many conceptual similarities to statistical physics, which have given rise to a fruitful interaction between the two fields in recent years. The aim of these lectures is to introduce the basic concepts and describe some topics of current interest to students and postdocs with little or no prior knowledge of population genetics and evolutionary theory