Probabilistic Cellular Automata

This book explores Probabilistic Cellular Automata (PCA) from the perspectives of statistical mechanics, probability theory, computational biology and computer science. PCA are extensions of the well-known Cellular Automata models of complex systems, characterized by random updating rules. Thanks to their probabilistic component, PCA offer flexible computing tools for complex numerical constructions, and realistic simulation tools for phenomena driven by interactions among a large number of neighboring structures. PCA are currently being used in various fields, ranging from pure probability to the social sciences and including a wealth of scientific and technological applications. This situation has produced a highly diversified pool of theoreticians, developers and practitioners whose interaction is highly desirable but can be hampered by differences in jargon and focus. This book – just as the workshop on which it is based – is an attempt to overcome these difference and foster interest among newcomers and interaction between practitioners from different fields. It is not intended as a treatise, but rather as a gentle introduction to the role and relevance of PCA technology, illustrated with a number of applications in probability, statistical mechanics, computer science, the natural sciences and dynamical systems. As such, it will be of interest to students and non-specialists looking to enter the field and to explore its challenges and open issues.

This book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Cellular Automata for Research and Industry, ACRI 2018, held in Como, Italy, in September 2018. The 47 full papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 64 submissions. This volume contains invited contributions and accepted papers from the main track and from the three organized workshops. The volume is organized in the following topics: biological systems modeling; simulation and other applications of CA; multi-agent systems; pedestrian and traffic dynamics; synchronization and control; theory and cryptography; asynchronous cellular automata; and crowds, traffic and cellular automata.

Cellular automata can be viewed both as computational models and modelling systems of real processes. This volume emphasises the first aspect. In articles written by leading researchers, sophisticated massive parallel algorithms (firing squad, life, Fischer's primes recognition) are treated. Their computational power and the specific complexity classes they determine are surveyed, while some recent results in relation to chaos from a new dynamic systems point of view are also presented. Audience: This book will be of interest to specialists of theoretical computer science and the parallelism challenge.

This book contains the lectures given at the NATO Advanced Study Institute on `Cellular Automata and Cooperative Systems', held at Les Houches, France, from June 22 to July 2, 1992. The book contains contributions by mathematical and theoretical physicists and mathematicians working in the field of local interacting systems, cellular probabilistic automata, statistical physics, and complexity theory, as well as the applications of these fields.

The book deals with analytical and computational studies of spatially-extended discrete dynamical systems: one-dimensional cellular automata. The topics included are non-constructible configurations, reversibility, probabilistic analysis and De Bruijn diagrams. Techniques discussed are based on topology, matrix theory, formal languages and probability theory. The book is an excellent reading for anybody interested in non-linearity, emergency, complexity and self-organization.