Luca Peliti: Population genetics and evolutionary dynamics
These lectures are an introduction to
population genetics and evolutionary dynamics in the language of
statistical physics. The analogy between statistical physics and the
theory of evolving population was highlightes since the beginning of
the evolutionary synthesis. In more recent years, this analogy has been
made more cogent by the introduction of concepts arising in the theory
of disordered systems. I shall deal with simple models of populations
evolving in a fixed environment, with one-parent and two-parent
reproduction mechanisms, stressing how it is possible to identify, in
the genomic data, the different roles of mutation, selection and
chance. The role of evolution experiments in viral and bacterial
populations will also be discussed.