LATTICE-GAS AUTOMATA FOR REACTIVE SYSTEMS

Reactive lattice gas automata provide a microscopic approach to the dy namics of spatially-distributed reacting systems. An important virtue of this approach is that it offers a method for the investigation of r eactive systems at a mesoscopic level that goes beyond phenomenologica l reaction-diffusion equations. After introducing the subject within t he wider framework of lattice gas automata (LGA) as a microscopic appr oach to the phenomenology of macroscopic systems, we describe the reac tive LGA in terms of a simple physical picture to show how an automato n can be constructed to capture the essentials of a reactive molecular dynamics scheme. The statistical mechanical theory of the automaton i s then developed for diffusive transport and for reactive processes, a nd a general algorithm is presented for reactive LGA. The method is il lustrated by considering applications to bistable and excitable media, oscillatory behavior in reactive systems, chemical chaos and pattern formation triggered by Turing bifurcations. The reactive lattice gas s cheme is contrasted with related cellular automaton methods and the pa per concludes with a discussion of future perspectives.