An Invitation to Number-Conserving Cellular Automata

Abstract

Number-conserving cellular automata are discrete dynamical systems that simulate interacting particles like e.g. grains of sand. In an earlier paper, I had already derived a uniform construction for all transition rules of one-dimensional number-conserving automata. Here I describe in greater detail how one can simulate the automata on a computer and how to find interesting rules. I show several rules that I have found this way and also some theorems about the space of number-conserving automata.