Interpreting replicator dynamic for simplest population model

65 Views Asked by At

Suppose the simplest population model where we track the size $y$ of a population:

$$\frac{dy}{dt} = ry$$

for a positive constant $r$ and some $y$ such that $y(0) > 0$.

For this population model there is a corresponding "replicator dynamic" model defined by

$$x_0 := \frac{1}{1+y}$$

$$x_1 := \frac{y}{1+y}$$

These are supposed to model "frequencies" of different variants in a population,

QUESTION

except its not clear to me what the different variants here. There is only a single species here so of course it is 100% of its own population or 100% of all populations being modeled here, so I feel that I must be misunderstanding what the "frequencies" of the replicator dynamic are. Can someone clarify what $x_0$ and $x_1$ correspond to here? Thank you!