Generalized langton's ant: Dynamical behavior and complexity

Anahí Gajardo, Eric Goles, Andrés Moreira

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

Langton's ant is a simple discrete dynamical system, with a surprisingly complex behavior. We study its extension to general planar graphs. First we give some relations between characteristics of finite graphs and the dynamics of the ant on them. Then we consider the infinite bi-regular graphs of degrees 3 and 4, where we prove the universality of the system, and in the particular cases of the square and the hexagonal grids, we associate a P-hard problem to the dynamics. Finally, we show strong spatial restrictions on the trajectory of the ant in infinite bi-regular graphs with degrees strictly greater than 4, which contrasts with the high unpredictability on the graphs of lower degrees.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationSTACS 2001 - 18th Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, Proceedings
EditorsAfonso Ferreira, Horst Reichel
PublisherSpringer Verlag
Pages259-270
Number of pages12
ISBN (Print)9783540416951
DOIs
StatePublished - 2001
Externally publishedYes
Event18th Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 2001 - Dresden, Germany
Duration: 15 Feb 200117 Feb 2001

Publication series

NameLecture Notes in Computer Science (including subseries Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics)
Volume2010
ISSN (Print)0302-9743
ISSN (Electronic)1611-3349

Conference

Conference18th Annual Symposium on Theoretical Aspects of Computer Science, STACS 2001
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityDresden
Period15/02/0117/02/01

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