{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"d749edcc8566e395c0ac198149bbc63b87893fbe95506cd7909d744ddb16370c","created":"2026-10-03T07:17:57Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"bd09b659cef09e7ff1968b229a62345b7562403644d5b922d64571795a813269","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"yes-no","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"bio.ecosystem-statphys.microcosm-phase-test","kind":"well-posed","literature_status":"open","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"Laboratory communities of bacteria change from stable coexistence to lasting population swings as more species are added or as they interact more strongly, as random-interaction models predict. It remains to be shown that the experimental swings are the same phase the theory describes, rather than a different effect.","posed_since":"","precise":"Microcosm experiments that vary species-pool size $S$ and effective interaction strength find stable full coexistence, stable partial coexistence and persistent fluctuations, ordered as in random Lotka-Volterra theory. Determine whether the fluctuating experimental state shows the signatures of the theoretical chaotic phase: positive Lyapunov exponent from time series, self-consistent noise statistics of abundances, and phase-boundary location $\\sigma_c(\\gamma)$ set by measured interaction statistics. An answer is a quantitative match or mismatch with these predictions.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"Long, densely sampled time series of replicated microcosms with measured pairwise interaction statistics, compared with mean-field predictions for the boundary and fluctuation statistics.","status_note":"2022 microcosm experiments mapped the three phases with the order predicted by random-interaction theory.","title":"Are fluctuating phases in microbial microcosms the chaotic phase of theory?","topic_ref":"b9c809b192bcab182d6f87628bb2e8bce3f2c9b21a2b7905a8b13795c2793dcb"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"00a29f855cb2df65eafcd182e68db209fa1b65022de19fe0cc8919508cf8b9e0","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"a2920a6898f9606ff1a532a4d18f218d22bd656a2a4bac3e08b6e8b7fab06c4b","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"W7xOA9LhN4xyX56UtNO3QPkv9U0VVJhD2gLa7FBqmt9RAEzCrLKX7JS61zom8vN5b2MwKNVWwYvXW2izsC1SAA"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"00a29f855cb2df65eafcd182e68db209fa1b65022de19fe0cc8919508cf8b9e0","leaf_index":758}