A Physical Basis of Evolution and Speculation on an Evolutionary Basis of Physics,
K. Michaelian


This paper models an ecosystem as a system of interacting species represented as points in a multi-dimensional resource space. There is mutual interaction between species in this hyper resource space is determined by a "free energy" function for the system as a whole. If two species come too close together in this space their is repulsion due to the competition for resources. If two species are too far apart in this space, their mutual interaction goes to zero (due to corresponding separation in physical space). If they are at intermediate distance, the interaction may either be attractive or repulsive depending on the type of interaction (predator-prey, symbiosis, mutualism, etc.). In this manner an ecosystem has static and dynamic properties similar to an atomic cluster in real physcial space. In particular, at a non-zero temperature (represented by the natural mutation rates of the species) the system will "evolve", depending on the initial conditions, to states of lower free energy. This system exibits many signatures of real ecologies in Nature.
  I further suggest that physical processes (for example changes in quantum states of a system) happen in a manner very analgous with evolution and natural selection. A new quantum state cannot be exactly predicted, but is obtained with a probability that depends on the change of free energy of the system. The stability of this newly configured system depends on the characteristics of the energy surface in the region of this local minimum of the free energy.  

A preprint .pdf file can be obtained here article.pdf .