English

How hard is it to predict sandpiles on lattices? A survey

Discrete Mathematics 2019-11-26 v1

Abstract

Since their introduction in the 80s, sandpile models have raised interest for their simple definition and their surprising dynamical properties. In this survey we focus on the computational complexity of the prediction problem, namely, the complexity of knowing, given a finite configuration cc and a cell xx in cc, if cell xx will eventually become unstable. This is an attempt to formalize the intuitive notion of "behavioral complexity" that one easily observes in simulations. However, despite many efforts and nice results, the original question remains open: how hard is it to predict the two-dimensional sandpile model of Bak, Tang and Wiesenfeld?

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.12150,
  title  = {How hard is it to predict sandpiles on lattices? A survey},
  author = {Kévin Perrot and Enrico Formenti},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.12150},
  year   = {2019}
}

Comments

to appear in Fundamenta Informaticae