/lotka-volterra-probes

Modelling the behaviour of self-replicating interstellar probes after mutation into predator-prey populations

Primary LanguageC++GNU General Public License v3.0GPL-3.0

Predator-Prey populations of self-replicating interstellar probes evolving on a stellar network

Build Status

This code (originally written in C++ using the Eclipse CDT) follows the growth of self-replicating interstellar probes on a network of stars.

Each star solves the Lotka-Volterra equations, where each system is coupled to neighbouring systems by inflow/outflow terms for both prey and predators. More information can be found in the accompanying paper:

Compiling the code


This code was written in the Eclipse CDT. A standalone Makefile is also available in \src, so when in this directory, typing 'make' should compile the code.

Running the code


The code is run using the command

> ./lotka_volterra_probes <paramfile>

An example can be found in the paramfiles/ directory. The parameters that define each Lotka-Volterra system can be fixed as constants, sampled from a uniform distribution or sampled from a Gaussian. The parameter file explains how each sampling method is defined/input into the code.

Plotting

The \plot directory contains Python 2.7 scripts for plotting both the graph generated by the stellar network, and the individual Lotka-Volterra systems within the graph. These were developed using numpy, scipy and matplotlib.