English

Categorical products of cellular automata

Cellular Automata and Lattice Gases 2025-03-28 v1 Category Theory Group Theory

Abstract

We study two categories of cellular automata. First, for any group GG, we consider the category CA(G)\mathcal{CA}(G) whose objects are configuration spaces of the form AGA^G, where AA is a set, and whose morphisms are cellular automata of the form τ:A1GA2G\tau : A_1^G \to A_2^G. We prove that the categorical product of two configuration spaces A1GA_1^G and A2GA_2^G in CA(G)\mathcal{CA}(G) is the configuration space (A1×A2)G(A_1 \times A_2)^G. Then, we consider the category of generalized cellular automata GCA\mathcal{GCA}, whose objects are configuration spaces of the form AGA^G, where AA is a set and GG is a group, and whose morphisms are ϕ\phi-cellular automata of the form T:A1G1A2G2\mathcal{T} : A_1^{G_1} \to A_2^{G_2}, where ϕ:G2G1\phi : G_2 \to G_1 is a group homomorphism. We prove that a categorical weak product of two configuration spaces A1G1A_1^{G_1} and A2G2A_2^{G_2} in GCA\mathcal{GCA} is the configuration space (A1×A2)G1G2(A_1 \times A_2)^{G_1 \ast G_2}, where G1G2G_1 \ast G_2 is the free product of G1G_1 and G2G_2. The previous results allow us to naturally define the product of two cellular automata in CA(G)\mathcal{CA}(G) and the weak product of two generalized cellular automata in GCA\mathcal{GCA}.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2503.21567,
  title  = {Categorical products of cellular automata},
  author = {Alonso Castillo-Ramirez and Alejandro Vazquez-Aceves and Angel Zaldivar-Corichi},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.21567},
  year   = {2025}
}

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10 pages