The Ideal Storage Cellular Automaton Model

Abstract

We have implemented and investigated a spatial extension of the orig-
inal ideal storage model by embedding it in a 2D cellular automaton with
a diffusion-like coupling between neighboring cells. The resulting ideal
storage cellular automaton model (ISCAM) generates many interesting
spatio-temporal patterns, in particular spiral waves that grow and com-
pete" with each other. We study this dynamical behavior both mathemat-
ically and computationally, and compare it with similar patterns observed
in actual chemical processes. Remarkably, it turned out that one can use
such CA for modeling all sorts of complex processes, from phase transition
in binary mixtures to using them as a metaphor for cancer onset caused
by only one short pulse of 'tissue dis-organzation' (changing e.g. for only
one single time step the diffusion coefficient) as hypothesized in recent
papers questioning the current gene/genome centric view on cancer onset
by AO Ping et al.