Origin of Complexity and Conditional Predictability in Cellular Automata

Abstract

A simple mechanism for the emergence of complexity in cellular automata out of predictable dynamics is described. This leads to unfold the concept of conditional predictability for systems whose trajectory can only be piecewise known. The mechanism is used to construct a cellular automaton model for discrete chimera-like states, where synchrony and incoherence in an ensemble of identical oscillators coexist. The incoherent region is shown to have a periodicity that is three orders of magnitude longer than the period of the synchronous oscillation.