Descriptional complexity of cellular automata and decidability questions

We study the descriptional complexity of cellular automata (CA), a parallel model of computation. We show that between one of the simplest cellular models, the realtime-OCA. and "classical" models like deterministic finite automata (DFA) or pushdown automata (PDA), there will be savings concerning the size of description not bounded by any recursive function, a so-called nonrecursive trade-off. Furthermore, nonrecursive trade-offs are shown between some restricted classes of cellular automata. The set of valid computations of a Turing machine can be recognized by a realtime-OCA. This implies that many decidability questions are not even semi decidable for cellular automata. There is no pumping lemma and no minimization algorithm for cellular automata

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

A guided tour of asynchronous cellular automata

Research on asynchronous cellular automata has received a great amount of attention these last years and has turned to a thriving field. We survey the recent research that has been carried out on this topic and present a wide state of the art where computing and modelling issues are both represented.Comment: To appear in the Journal of Cellular Automat

Computational Processes and Incompleteness

We introduce a formal definition of Wolfram's notion of computational process based on cellular automata, a physics-like model of computation. There is a natural classification of these processes into decidable, intermediate and complete. It is shown that in the context of standard finite injury priority arguments one cannot establish the existence of an intermediate computational process

Measuring Communication in Parallel Communicating Finite Automata

Systems of deterministic finite automata communicating by sending their states upon request are investigated, when the amount of communication is restricted. The computational power and decidability properties are studied for the case of returning centralized systems, when the number of necessary communications during the computations of the system is bounded by a function depending on the length of the input. It is proved that an infinite hierarchy of language families exists, depending on the number of messages sent during their most economical recognitions. Moreover, several properties are shown to be not semi-decidable for the systems under consideration.Comment: In Proceedings AFL 2014, arXiv:1405.527