Numerical implementation of dynamical mean field theory for disordered systems: application to the Lotka-Volterra model of ecosystems

Dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) is a tool that allows one to analyze the stochastic dynamics of N interacting degrees of freedom in terms of a self-consistent 1-body problem. In this work, focusing on models of ecosystems, we present the derivation of DMFT through the dynamical cavity method, and we develop a method for solving it numerically. Our numerical procedure can be applied to a large variety of systems for which DMFT holds. We implement and test it for the generalized random Lotka-Volterra model, and show that complex dynamical regimes characterized by chaos and aging can be captured and studied by this framework.