Localization dynamics in a binary two-dimensional cellular automaton: the Diffusion Rule

TL;DR

This paper investigates a 2D cellular automaton called Diffusion Rule, revealing diverse mobile and stationary patterns, analyzing their interactions, and exploring potential applications in unconventional computing.

Contribution

It introduces the Diffusion Rule CA, characterizes its localization patterns, and examines their dynamics and collision behaviors for computational applications.

Findings

Discovery of various localizations like gliders and oscillators

Analysis of collision dynamics between patterns

Potential use in unconventional computing systems

Abstract

We study a two-dimensional cellular automaton (CA), called Diffusion Rule (DR), which exhibits diffusion-like dynamics of propagating patterns. In computational experiments we discover a wide range of mobile and stationary localizations (gliders, oscillators, glider guns, puffer trains, etc), analyze spatio-temporal dynamics of collisions between localizations, and discuss possible applications in unconventional computing.