2 TYPES OF PERFORMANCE OF AN ISOTROPIC CELLULAR AUTOMATON - STATIONARY (TURING) PATTERNS AND SPIRAL WAVES

An isotropic cellular automaton containing only the crudest caricature of activator-inhibitor systems, is shown to be capable of producing stationary spatial structures (Turing patterns) in qualitative agreement with a variety of experiments in chemistry. Due to the isotropy of our automaton, we can obtain spots arranged in regular hexagons, a pattern that cannot be obtained with a classical square lattice. Labyrinthine stripes, like those observed in magnetic domains in thin films, are also obtained. Spiral waves are obtained upon increasing the radius of action of the activator relative to that of the inhibitor, as predicted by theory.