Complex Dynamics in a Hexagonal Cellular Automaton

Hexagonal cellular automata (CA) were studied with interestas a variation of the famous Game of Life CA, mainlyfor spiral phenomena simulations; where the most interestingconstructions are related to the Belousov-Zhabotinskyreaction. In this paper, we study a special kind of hexagonalCA known as the Spiral rule. Such automaton displaysa non-trivial complex behaviour related to discrete modelsof reaction-diffusion chemical media, dominated by spiralguns that easily emerge from random initial conditions.Computing abilities of Spiral rule automata are shown bymeans of logic gates, defined by collisions between mobileself-localizations. Also, a more extended classification ofcomplex self-localization patterns is presented, includingsome self-organized patterns.