Strong Noise Effects in one-dimensional Neutral Populations

The dynamics of well-mixed biological populations is usually studied by mean-field methods and weak-noise expansions. Similar methods have been applied also in spatially extended problems, relying on the fact that these populations are organized in colonies with a large local density of individuals. We provide a counterexample discussing a one-dimensional neutral population with negative frequency-dependent selection. The system exhibits a continuous phase transition between genetic fixation and coexistence unexpected from weak-noise arguments. We show that the behavior is a non-perturbative effect of the internal noise that is amplified by presence of spatial correlations (strong-noise regime).