Parametric Excitation and Evolutionary Dynamics

Parametric excitation refers to dynamics problems in which the forcing function enters into the governing differential equation as a variable coefficient. Evolutionary dynamics refers to a mathematical model of natural selection (the “replicator” equation) which involves a combination of game theory and differential equations. In this paper we apply perturbation theory to investigate parametric resonance in a replicator equation having periodic coefficients. In particular, we study evolution in the Rock-Paper-Scissors game, which has biological and social applications. Here periodic coefficients could represent seasonal variation. We show that 2:1 subharmonic resonance can destabilize the usual “Rock-Paper-Scissors” equilibrium for parameters located in a resonant tongue in parameter space. However, we also show that the tongue may be absent or very small if the forcing parameters are chosen appropriately.