Synchronous versus asynchronous updating in the "game of Life" (1999)

Synchronous versus asynchronous updating in the “game of Life”

Blok & Bergersen (1999)
& (). Synchronous versus asynchronous updating in the “game of Life”. Physical Review E, 59(4). 3876–3879. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.59.3876

Abstract

The rules for the “game of Life” are modified to allow for only a random fraction of sites to be updated in each time step. Under variation of this fraction from the parallel updating limit down to the Poisson limit, a critical phase transition is observed that explains why the game of Life appears to obey self-organized criticality. The critical exponents are calculated and the static exponents appear to belong to the directed percolation universality class in 2+1 dimensions. The dynamic exponents, however, are nonuniversal, as seen in other systems with multiple absorbing states.

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