2015/07/21 by W Eckel, Walter Eckel, Eckel, Walter
Computer Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Cellular Automata and Applications #Cellular Automata and Lattice Gases (nlin.CG) #FOS: Physical sciences #nlin.CG
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1507.05789
44 pages, 30 figures The author would like to thank Enago ([http://www.enago.com]) for the English language review
openalex publication_date 2015/07/21 · arxiv created 2016/07/16 · arxiv updated 2016/07/19 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
This paper describes a new concept of cellular automaton (CA). XCA consists of a set of arcs (edges) that correspond to cells in CA. At a particular time, the arcs are connected to a directed graph. With each time step, the arcs exchange their neighbors (adjacent arcs) according to rules that depend on the statuses of the adjacent arcs. An XCA can be used to simulate an artificial world beginning with a Big Bang. In contrast to an CA, an XCA does not require a grid. However, it can create one, just as the real universe after the Big Bang generated its own space, which had not excisted previously. Examples using different rules reveal the manifold nature of the XCA concept. Similar to John Conway s well-known The Game of Life simulates birth, survival, and death, this game can simulate a system that begins from a singularity, and evolves into a complex space.