Evolution of cooperation on scale-free networks under limited resources

Limitation of resources has been recently introduced as a mechanism for the survival and coexistence of cooperators with defectors in well-mixed populations. Here we examine the same model on a scale-free network. A prisoner’s dilemma game on a scale-free network has shown coexistence of cooperators and defectors for the entire range of parameters. Our results show that by introducing the network to the limited resources model, the cooperator dominated region in the parameter space expands comparing to the results of well-mixed population and the coexistence region becomes narrower. The effect of scale-free network is therefore interpreted as improving the cooperation in the population and reducing the coexistence.