Ornstein-Uhlenbeck vs. Brownian motion model

This applet shows 5 independent Brownian motion (BM) or Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) simulations. A trait evolving by BM performs a random walk independently for each of the two lineages that descend from the starting point. The variance (i.e. uncertainty) of the difference between the two trait values increases linearly with time. A trait evolving by OU tends to not stray far from the optimum (vertical dashed line). Theta determines the strength of this attraction.

Press S to simulate again, T to toggle between OU and BM, up/down arrow to change variance (hold down Shift key to prevent scrolling), left/right arrow to change OU strength, and [ or ] to change offset of OU mean from the starting point.

Acknowledgements

This applet makes use of the excellent d3js javascript library. Please see the GitHub site for details about licensing of other libraries that may have been used in the source code for this applet.

Licence

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International. License (CC BY 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California 94305, USA.