{
  "id": "1210.5819",
  "version": "v1",
  "published": "2012-10-22T07:41:31.000Z",
  "updated": "2012-10-22T07:41:31.000Z",
  "title": "Absence of Detailed Balance in Ecology",
  "authors": [
    "Jacopo Grilli",
    "Sandro Azaele",
    "Jayanth R. Banavar",
    "Amos Maritan"
  ],
  "comment": "8 pages, 3 figures. Accepted for publication in EPL",
  "journal": "EPL, 100 (2012) 38002",
  "doi": "10.1209/0295-5075/100/38002",
  "categories": [
    "cond-mat.stat-mech",
    "physics.bio-ph",
    "q-bio.PE"
  ],
  "abstract": "Living systems are typically characterized by irreversible processes. A condition equivalent to the reversibility is the detailed balance, whose absence is an obstacle for analytically solving ecological models. We revisit a promising model with an elegant field-theoretic analytic solution and show that the theoretical analysis is invalid because of an implicit assumption of detailed balance. A signature of the difficulties is evident in the inconsistencies appearing in the many-point correlation functions and in the analytical formula for the species area relationship.",
  "revisions": [
    {
      "version": "v1",
      "updated": "2012-10-22T07:41:31.000Z"
    }
  ],
  "analyses": {
    "keywords": [
      "detailed balance",
      "elegant field-theoretic analytic solution",
      "species area relationship",
      "many-point correlation functions",
      "implicit assumption"
    ],
    "tags": [
      "journal article"
    ],
    "publication": {
      "journal": "EPL (Europhysics Letters)",
      "year": 2012,
      "month": "Nov",
      "volume": 100,
      "number": 3,
      "pages": 38002
    },
    "note": {
      "typesetting": "TeX",
      "pages": 8,
      "language": "en",
      "license": "arXiv",
      "status": "editable",
      "adsabs": "2012EL....10038002G"
    }
  }
}