CRITICAL-BEHAVIOR OF A PROBABILISTIC CELLULAR-AUTOMATON DESCRIBING A BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM

Citation
Nrs. Ortega et al., CRITICAL-BEHAVIOR OF A PROBABILISTIC CELLULAR-AUTOMATON DESCRIBING A BIOLOGICAL SYSTEM, Physica. A, 255(1-2), 1998, pp. 189-200
Citations number
30
Categorie Soggetti
Physics
Journal title
ISSN journal
03784371
Volume
255
Issue
1-2
Year of publication
1998
Pages
189 - 200
Database
ISI
SICI code
0378-4371(1998)255:1-2<189:COAPCD>2.0.ZU;2-M
Abstract
We study nonequilibrium phase transitions occurring in a probabilistic cellular automaton which describes one part of the immune system. In this model, each site can be occupied by three type of cells and the i mmune response under parasitic infections is described in terms of two parameters p and r. The local rules governing the evolution of this a utomaton possess ''up-down'' symmetry similar to Ising models. Perform ing Monte Carlo simulations on square and cubic lattices we verify tha t the model displays continuous kinetic phase transitions with spontan eous symmetry breaking. We present detailed simulations and analysis o f the critical behavior. Our results indicate that the model belongs t o the Ising universality class, supporting the ''up-down'' conjecture. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.