Physics – Condensed Matter – Statistical Mechanics
Scientific paper
1999-12-29
P NATL ACAD SCI USA 97: (19) 10322-10324 SEP 12 2000
Physics
Condensed Matter
Statistical Mechanics
4 pages, 4 figures
Scientific paper
10.1073/pnas.180263697
Many systems in chemistry, biology, finance and social sciences present emerging features which are not easy to guess from the elementary interactions of their microscopic individual components. In the past, the macroscopic behavior of such systems was modeled by assuming that the collective dynamics of microscopic components can be effectively described collectively by equations acting on spatially continuous density distributions. It turns out that quite contrary, taking into account the actual individual/discrete character of the microscopic components of these systems is crucial for explaining their macroscopic behavior. In fact, we find that in conditions in which the continuum approach would predict the extinction of all the population (respectively the vanishing of the invested capital or of the concentration of a chemical substance, etc), the microscopic granularity insures the emergence of macroscopic localized sub-populations with collective adaptive properties which allow their survival and development. In particular it is found that in 2 dimensions "life" (the localized proliferating phase) always prevails.
Bettelheim Eldad
Louzoun Yoram
Shnerb Nadav M.
Solomon Sorin
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