We present evidence that the Bak-Sneppen model of evolution on N vertices
requires N3 iterates to reach equilibrium. This is substantially more than
previous authors suggested (on the order of N2). Based on that estimate, we
present a novel algorithm inspired by previous rank-driven analyses of the
model allowing for direct simulation of the model with populations of up to N=25600 for 2β N3 iterations. These extensive simulations suggest a
cutoff value of xβ=0.66692Β±0.00003, a value slightly lower than
previously estimated yet still distinctly above 2/3. We also study how the
cutoff values xNββ at finite N approximate the conjectured value xβ at
N=β. Assuming xNβββxββββΌNβΞ½, we find that
Ξ½=0.978Β±0.025, which is significantly lower than previous estimates
(Ξ½β1.4).Comment: 18 figures, 12 page