1,050 research outputs found
The universe as quantum computer
This article reviews the history of digital computation, and investigates
just how far the concept of computation can be taken. In particular, I address
the question of whether the universe itself is in fact a giant computer, and if
so, just what kind of computer it is. I will show that the universe can be
regarded as a giant quantum computer. The quantum computational model of the
universe explains a variety of observed phenomena not encompassed by the
ordinary laws of physics. In particular, the model shows that the the quantum
computational universe automatically gives rise to a mix of randomness and
order, and to both simple and complex systems.Comment: 16 pages, LaTe
Scale-invariant cellular automata and self-similar Petri nets
Two novel computing models based on an infinite tessellation of space-time
are introduced. They consist of recursively coupled primitive building blocks.
The first model is a scale-invariant generalization of cellular automata,
whereas the second one utilizes self-similar Petri nets. Both models are
capable of hypercomputations and can, for instance, "solve" the halting problem
for Turing machines. These two models are closely related, as they exhibit a
step-by-step equivalence for finite computations. On the other hand, they
differ greatly for computations that involve an infinite number of building
blocks: the first one shows indeterministic behavior whereas the second one
halts. Both models are capable of challenging our understanding of
computability, causality, and space-time.Comment: 35 pages, 5 figure
Computing by nowhere increasing complexity
A cellular automaton is presented whose governing rule is that the Kolmogorov
complexity of a cell's neighborhood may not increase when the cell's present
value is substituted for its future value. Using an approximation of this
two-dimensional Kolmogorov complexity the underlying automaton is shown to be
capable of simulating logic circuits. It is also shown to capture trianry logic
described by a quandle, a non-associative algebraic structure. A similar
automaton whose rule permits at times the increase of a cell's neighborhood
complexity is shown to produce animated entities which can be used as
information carriers akin to gliders in Conway's game of life
A Simple n-Dimensional Intrinsically Universal Quantum Cellular Automaton
We describe a simple n-dimensional quantum cellular automaton (QCA) capable
of simulating all others, in that the initial configuration and the forward
evolution of any n-dimensional QCA can be encoded within the initial
configuration of the intrinsically universal QCA. Several steps of the
intrinsically universal QCA then correspond to one step of the simulated QCA.
The simulation preserves the topology in the sense that each cell of the
simulated QCA is encoded as a group of adjacent cells in the universal QCA.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures. In Proceedings of the 4th International
Conference on Language and Automata Theory and Applications (LATA 2010),
Lecture Notes in Computer Science (LNCS). Journal version: arXiv:0907.382
5-State Rotation-Symmetric Number-Conserving Cellular Automata are not Strongly Universal
We study two-dimensional rotation-symmetric number-conserving cellular
automata working on the von Neumann neighborhood (RNCA). It is known that such
automata with 4 states or less are trivial, so we investigate the possible
rules with 5 states. We give a full characterization of these automata and show
that they cannot be strongly Turing universal. However, we give example of
constructions that allow to embed some boolean circuit elements in a 5-states
RNCA
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