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Toda-like Hamiltonian as a probe for quantized prey-predator dynamics

Alex E. Bernardini*,† and Orfeu Bertolami‡,§

  • Departamento de Física e Astronomia, Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal

  • *Contact author: alexeb@ufscar.br
  • †On leave of absence from Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de São Carlos, PO Box 676, 13565-905 São Carlos, SP, Brazil.
  • ‡Contact author: orfeu.bertolami@fc.up.pt
  • §Present address: Centro de Física das Universidades do Minho e do Porto, Rua do Campo Alegre 687, 4169-007 Porto, Portugal.
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Phys. Rev. E 113, 044201 – Published 1 April, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/d7rd-2gb3

Abstract

Phase-space features of a reduced version of the Toda-like Hamiltonian H(x,k), written in a form constrained by the condition ∂2H/∂x∂k=0, with x and k as canonically conjugate variables, are analyzed in terms of Wigner currents. For Wigner currents convoluted with either thermodynamic or Gaussian ensembles, the underlying Hamiltonian dynamics admits analytic corrections due to quantum distortions over the classical phase-space pattern, computed and interpreted through quantifiers of quantumness and stationarity. Notably, while emulating the Lotka-Volterra (LV) dynamics that describe ecological competition systems, the Toda-like classical dynamics allows for analytical solutions with computable periods corresponding to closed phase-space orbits of isotropic prey-predator population distributions. The essential conditions for understanding how classical and quantum evolution can coexist are provided at different scales of quantumness, driven by the associated convoluting ensemble parameter. In the case of Gaussian statistical ensembles, the exact profile of the quantum distortions over classical prey-predator phase-space trajectories is obtained nonperturbatively. Our results indicate that, besides the classical stability admitted by LV models, the Toda-like patterns also exhibit quantum stability. Therefore, this can be regarded as the first step as a predictive theoretical framework toward more robust descriptions of quantum patterns in competitive microscopic biosystems.

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Phys. Rev. E 113, 044201– Published 1 April, 2026
  • Received 22 September 2025
  • Accepted 17 March 2026
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