Automatic Filters for the Detection of Coherent Structure in Spatiotemporal Systems

Most current methods for identifying coherent structures in spatially-extended systems rely on prior information about the form which those structures take. Here we present two new approaches to automatically filter the changing configurations of spatial dynamical systems and extract coherent structures. One, local sensitivity filtering, is a modification of the local Lyapunov exponent approach suitable to cellular automata and other discrete spatial systems. The other, local statistical complexity filtering, calculates the amount of information needed for optimal prediction of the system's behavior in the vicinity of a given point. By examining the changing spatiotemporal distributions of these quantities, we can find the coherent structures in a variety of pattern-forming cellular automata, without needing to guess or postulate the form of that structure. We apply both filters to elementary and cyclical cellular automata (ECA and CCA) and find that they readily identify particles, domains and other more complicated structures. We compare the results from ECA with earlier ones based upon the theory of formal languages, and the results from CCA with a more traditional approach based on an order parameter and free energy. While sensitivity and statistical complexity are equally adept at uncovering structure, they are based on different system properties (dynamical and probabilistic, respectively), and provide complementary information.Comment: 16 pages, 21 figures. Figures considerably compressed to fit arxiv requirements; write first author for higher-resolution version

A Survey of Cellular Automata: Types, Dynamics, Non-uniformity and Applications

Cellular automata (CAs) are dynamical systems which exhibit complex global behavior from simple local interaction and computation. Since the inception of cellular automaton (CA) by von Neumann in 1950s, it has attracted the attention of several researchers over various backgrounds and fields for modelling different physical, natural as well as real-life phenomena. Classically, CAs are uniform. However, non-uniformity has also been introduced in update pattern, lattice structure, neighborhood dependency and local rule. In this survey, we tour to the various types of CAs introduced till date, the different characterization tools, the global behaviors of CAs, like universality, reversibility, dynamics etc. Special attention is given to non-uniformity in CAs and especially to non-uniform elementary CAs, which have been very useful in solving several real-life problems.Comment: 43 pages; Under review in Natural Computin

Complex dynamics emerging in Rule 30 with majority memory

In cellular automata with memory, the unchanged maps of the conventional cellular automata are applied to cells endowed with memory of their past states in some specified interval. We implement Rule 30 automata with a majority memory and show that using the memory function we can transform quasi-chaotic dynamics of classical Rule 30 into domains of travelling structures with predictable behaviour. We analyse morphological complexity of the automata and classify dynamics of gliders (particles, self-localizations) in memory-enriched Rule 30. We provide formal ways of encoding and classifying glider dynamics using de Bruijn diagrams, soliton reactions and quasi-chemical representations

Phase Transitions of Cellular Automata

We explore some aspects of phase transitions in cellular automata. We start recalling the standard formulation of statistical mechanics of discrete systems (Ising model), illustrating the Monte Carlo approach as Markov chains and stochastic processes. We then formulate the cellular automaton problem using simple models, and illustrate different types of possible phase transitions: density phase transitions of first and second order, damage spreading, dilution of deterministic rules, asynchronism-induced transitions, synchronization phenomena, chaotic phase transitions and the influence of the topology. We illustrate the improved mean-field techniques and the phenomenological renormalization group approach.Comment: 13 pages, 14 figure

Complexity, parallel computation and statistical physics

The intuition that a long history is required for the emergence of complexity in natural systems is formalized using the notion of depth. The depth of a system is defined in terms of the number of parallel computational steps needed to simulate it. Depth provides an objective, irreducible measure of history applicable to systems of the kind studied in statistical physics. It is argued that physical complexity cannot occur in the absence of substantial depth and that depth is a useful proxy for physical complexity. The ideas are illustrated for a variety of systems in statistical physics.Comment: 21 pages, 7 figure

Coding-theorem Like Behaviour and Emergence of the Universal Distribution from Resource-bounded Algorithmic Probability

Previously referred to as `miraculous' in the scientific literature because of its powerful properties and its wide application as optimal solution to the problem of induction/inference, (approximations to) Algorithmic Probability (AP) and the associated Universal Distribution are (or should be) of the greatest importance in science. Here we investigate the emergence, the rates of emergence and convergence, and the Coding-theorem like behaviour of AP in Turing-subuniversal models of computation. We investigate empirical distributions of computing models in the Chomsky hierarchy. We introduce measures of algorithmic probability and algorithmic complexity based upon resource-bounded computation, in contrast to previously thoroughly investigated distributions produced from the output distribution of Turing machines. This approach allows for numerical approximations to algorithmic (Kolmogorov-Chaitin) complexity-based estimations at each of the levels of a computational hierarchy. We demonstrate that all these estimations are correlated in rank and that they converge both in rank and values as a function of computational power, despite fundamental differences between computational models. In the context of natural processes that operate below the Turing universal level because of finite resources and physical degradation, the investigation of natural biases stemming from algorithmic rules may shed light on the distribution of outcomes. We show that up to 60\% of the simplicity/complexity bias in distributions produced even by the weakest of the computational models can be accounted for by Algorithmic Probability in its approximation to the Universal Distribution.Comment: 27 pages main text, 39 pages including supplement. Online complexity calculator: http://complexitycalculator.com

A complex network approach to urban growth

The economic geography can be viewed as a large and growing network of interacting activities. This fundamental network structure and the large size of such systems makes complex networks an attractive model for its analysis. In this paper we propose the use of complex networks for geographical modeling and demonstrate how such an application can be combined with a cellular model to produce output that is consistent with large scale regularities such as power laws and fractality. Complex networks can provide a stringent framework for growth dynamic modeling where concepts from e.g. spatial interaction models and multiplicative growth models can be combined with the flexible representation of land and behavior found in cellular automata and agent-based models. In addition, there exists a large body of theory for the analysis of complex networks that have direct applications for urban geographic problems. The intended use of such models is twofold: i) to address the problem of how the empirically observed hierarchical structure of settlements can be explained as a stationary property of a stochastic evolutionary process rather than as equilibrium points in a dynamics, and, ii) to improve the prediction quality of applied urban modeling.evolutionary economics, complex networks, urban growth