Selection Mutation Differential Equations: Long-time Behavior of Measure-Valued Solutions

Abstract: We study the long-time behavior of solutions to a measure-valued selection-mutation model that we formulated in \cite{CLEVACK}. We establish permanence results for the full model, and we study the limiting behavior even when there is more than one strategy of a given fitness; a case that arises in applications. We show that for the pure selection case the solution of the dynamical system converges to a Dirac measure centered at the fittest strategy class provided that the support of the initial measure contains a fittest strategy; thus we term this Dirac measure an Asymptotically Stable Strategy (ASS). We also show that when the strategy space is discrete, the selection-mutation model with small mutation has a locally asymptotically stable equilibrium that attracts all initial conditions that are positive at the fittest strategy.