title: Explore or exploit? A generic model and an exactly solvable case.
abstract: Finding a good compromise between the exploitation of known resources and the exploration of unknown, but potentially more profitable choices, is a general problem, which arises in many different scientific disciplines. We propose a stylized model for these exploration-exploitation situations, including population or economic growth, portfolio optimization, evolutionary dynamics, or the problem of optimal pinning of vortices or dislocations in disordered materials. We find the exact growth rate of this model for treelike geometries and prove the existence of an optimal migration rate in this case. Numerical simulations in the one-dimensional case confirm the generic existence of an optimum.
authors.affiliation: CNRS-Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Cedex 05, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Gueudré
authors.affiliation: CNRS-Laboratoire de Physique Théorique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, 24 rue Lhomond, 75231 Cedex 05, Paris, France.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dobrinevski
authors.affiliation: Capital Fund Management, 21 rue de l'université, 75007 Paris, France.
authors.forename: Jean-Philippe
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Bouchaud