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Effect of chaotic agent dynamics on coevolution of cooperation and synchronization

The effect of the chaotic dynamical states of the agents on the coevolution of cooperation and synchronization in a structured population of the agents remains unexplored. With a view to gaining insights into this problem, we construct a coupled map lattice of the paradigmatic chaotic logistic map by adopting the Watts--Strogatz network algorithm. The map models the agent's chaotic state dynamics. In the model, an agent benefits by synchronizing with its neighbours and in the process of doing so, it pays a cost. The agents update their strategies (cooperation or defection) by using either a stochastic or a deterministic rule in an attempt to fetch themselves higher payoffs than what they already have. Among some other interesting results, we find that beyond a critical coupling strength, that increases with the rewiring probability parameter of the Watts--Strogatz model, the coupled map lattice is spatiotemporally synchronized regardless of the rewiring probability. Moreover, we observe that the population does not desynchronize completely -- and hence finite level of cooperation is sustained -- even when the average degree of the coupled map lattice is very high. These results are at odds with how a population of the non-chaotic Kuramoto oscillators as agents would behave. Our model also brings forth the possibility of the emergence of cooperation through synchronization onto a dynamical state that is a periodic orbit attractor.