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Equation 10 · Hominin Evolution and Deep Prehistory: A First-Principles Introduction

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P4P_4

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P4P_4

Symbol P_4

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subscript

subscript

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where P1P_1 through P4P_4 are allele frequencies at site i in an outgroup, a candidate-admixed population, a comparison population without the admixture, and the archaic source, respectively. The estimator exploits a simple logic: if population P2P_2 has interbred with the archaic lineage P4P_4 and P3P_3 has not, P2P_2 should share systematically more rare variants with P4P_4 than P3P_3 does, in proportion to the fraction of its genome that traces to that admixture event. This is why admixture claims in the literature are reported as percentages with confidence intervals rather than as a binary yes/no — the estimate is statistical, built from many thousands of sites, not read off a single marker.

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