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Quasi-Equilibrium States and Phase Transitions in Biological Evolution.

Authors :
Romanenko, Artem
Vanchurin, Vitaly
Source :
Entropy; Mar2024, Vol. 26 Issue 3, p201, 14p
Publication Year :
2024

Abstract

We developed a macroscopic description of the evolutionary dynamics by following the temporal dynamics of the total Shannon entropy of sequences, denoted by S, and the average Hamming distance between them, denoted by H. We argue that a biological system can persist in the so-called quasi-equilibrium state for an extended period, characterized by strong correlations between S and H, before undergoing a phase transition to another quasi-equilibrium state. To demonstrate the results, we conducted a statistical analysis of SARS-CoV-2 data from the United Kingdom during the period between March 2020 and December 2023. From a purely theoretical perspective, this allowed us to systematically study various types of phase transitions described by a discontinuous change in the thermodynamic parameters. From a more-practical point of view, the analysis can be used, for example, as an early warning system for pandemics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
10994300
Volume :
26
Issue :
3
Database :
Complementary Index
Journal :
Entropy
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
176302844
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3390/e26030201