Building efficient computational cellular automata models of complex systems: background, applications, results, software, and pathologies

Cellular automaton models of complex systems (CSs) are gaining greater popularity; simultaneously, they have proven the capability to solve real scientific and engineering applications. To enable everybody a quick penetration into the core of this type of modeling, three real applications of cellular automaton models, including selected open-source software codes, are studied: laser dynamics, dynamic recrystallization (DRX) and surface catalytic reactions. The paper is written in a way that it enables any researcher to reach the cutting-edge knowledge of the design principles of cellular automata (CA) models of the observed phenomena in any scientific ¯eld. The whole sequence of design steps is demonstrated: definition of the model using topology and local (transition) rule of a cellular automaton, achieved results, comparison to real experiments, calibration, pathological observations, °ow diagrams, software, and discussions. Additionally, the whole paper demonstrates the extreme expressiveness and flexibility of massively parallel computational approaches compared to other computational approaches. The paper consists of the introductory parts that are explaining CSs, self-organization and emergence, entropy, and CA. This allows readers to realize that there is a large variability in definitions and solutions of this class of models.