Theoretical Physics Division, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom.
Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Jan 24;112(3):038101. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.038101. Epub 2014 Jan 22.
We investigate a type of bistability occurring in population systems where noise not only causes transitions between stable states, but also constructs the states themselves. We focus on the experimentally well-studied system of ants choosing between two food sources to illustrate the essential points, but the ideas are more general. The mean time for switching between the two bistable states of the system is calculated. This suggests a procedure for estimating, in a real system, the critical population size above which bistability ceases to occur.
我们研究了一种在群体系统中出现的双稳性类型，其中噪声不仅会导致稳定状态之间的转变，还会构建状态本身。我们关注的是实验中研究得很好的蚂蚁在两个食物源之间选择的系统，来说明要点，但这些想法更具有普遍性。计算了系统在两个双稳态之间切换的平均时间。这为在实际系统中估计临界种群大小提供了一个程序，超过这个临界种群大小，双稳性就不再发生。
