Cellular automata as a new computational approach to modelling electromagnetic phenomena

Considers the application of cellular automata to the computational modelling of electromagnetic phenomena. Cellular automata consist of a spatially discrete lattice of very simple cells which evolve in discrete time steps. The possible states of each cell can be represented with a small set of values. For the present application, each cell has only two possible states, and the entire system can be described in terms of binary variables. The evolution of cellular automata from one state to the next is described by a deterministic rule, which is local in both space and time. The cellular automaton is exactly computable using digital hardware and free of truncation or roundoff errors. The particular type of cellular automata that the authors apply are referred to as lattice gas automata (Doolen et al. 1990). Lattice gas automata can be described completely in terms of binary variables and the algorithm can be described and implemented in terms of binary operations. Continuum behavior is achieved through local averaging of the binary states.<>