Rule 184

Rule 184 is a one-dimensional binary cellular automaton rule, notable for solving the majority problem as well as for its ability to simultaneously describe several, seemingly quite different, particle systems.

Description

Applications of Rule 184 include:

• as a simple model for traffic flow in a single lane of a highway, and forms the basis for many cellular automaton models of traffic flow with greater sophistication. In this model, particles (representing vehicles) move in a single direction, stopping and starting depending on the cars in front of them. The number of particles remains unchanged throughout the simulation. Because of this application, Rule 184 is sometimes called the "traffic rule".

• as a model of a form of deposition of particles onto an irregular surface, in which each local minimum of the surface is filled with a particle in each step. At each step of the simulation, the number of particles increases. Once placed, a particle never moves.

• as a model of ballistic annihilation, a system of particles moving both leftwards and rightwards through a one-dimensional medium. When two such particles collide, they annihilate each other, so that at each step the number of particles remains unchanged or decreases.

The apparent contradiction between these descriptions is resolved by different ways of associating features of the automaton's state with particles.

The name of Rule 184 is a Wolfram code that defines the evolution of its states.

The earliest research on Rule 184 is by Li (1987) and Krug & Spohn (1988).

See also

• Cellular automaton
• Complexity
• Deposition (aerosol physics)
• Majority problem
• Microscopic traffic flow model
• Particle system
• Rule 30
• Rule 90
• Rule 110

External links

• Rule 184 @ Wikipedia