Abstract.
In many cases fitness landscapes are obtained as particular instances of random fields by randomly assigning a large number of parameters. Models of this type are often characterized reasonably well by their covariance matrices. We characterize isotropic random fields on finite graphs in terms of their Fourier series expansions and investigate the relation between the covariance matrix of the random field model and the correlation structure of the individual landscapes constructed from this random field. Correlation measures are a good characteristic of “rugged landscapes” models as they are closely related to quantities like the number of local optima or the length of adaptive walks. Our formalism suggests to approximate landscape with known autocorrelation function by a random field model that has the same correlation structure.
Similar content being viewed by others
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Additional information
Received: 10 November 1995 / Revised version: 19 February 1996
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Stadler, P., Happel, R. Random field models for fitness landscapes. J Math Biol 38, 435–478 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1007/s002850050156
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s002850050156