Selection and dimension

I will describe the Spatial Lambda-Fleming-Viot process, which is a model of evolution in a spatial continuum, and discuss the time and spatial scales on which selectively advantageous genes propagate through space. The appropriate scaling depends on the dimension of space, resulting in three distinct cases; d=1, d=2 and d>=3. In d=1 the limiting genealogy is the Brownian net whereas, by contrast, in d=2 local interactions give rise to a delicate damping mechanism and result in a finite limiting branching rate. This is joint work with Alison Etheridge and Daniel Straulino.