A remarkable nonlinear invariant for evolution with heterogeneous rates
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Updated: Nov 3, 2026

Age-dependent Dynamics of Locomotion in Caenorhabditis elegans: A Lyapunov Exponent Analysis
Published on: September 23, 2025
1Centre de recherches mathématiques, Université de Montréal, Québec, Canada.
Abstract:
A model for DNA or protein sequence evolution is proposed where each position belongs to one of two distinct classes. The two classes evolve at different rates. For a phylogeny on four species, we find a cubic function of 4-tuple occurrence frequencies that is nontrivially invariant no matter what the proportion of positions in each rate class. This result refutes the major criticism of nonlinear polynomial invariants.
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