TY - JOUR T1 - Studying viral populations with tools from quantum spin chains Y1 - 2020 A1 - Saumya Shivam A1 - Christopher L. Baldwin A1 - John Barton A1 - Mehran Kardar A1 - S. L. Sondhi AB -

We study Eigen's model of quasi-species, characterized by sequences that replicate with a specified fitness and mutate independently at single sites. The evolution of the population vector in time is then closely related to that of quantum spins in imaginary time. We employ multiple perspectives and tools from interacting quantum systems to examine growth and collapse of realistic viral populations, specifically certain HIV proteins. All approaches used, including the simplest perturbation theory, give consistent results.

UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.10668 ER -