Cellular Automata on Graphs: Topological Properties of ER Graphs Evolved towards Low-Entropy Dynamics

Abstract: Cellular automata (CA) are a remarkably efficient tool for exploring general properties of complex systems and spatiotemporal patterns arising from local rules. Totalistic cellular automata, where the update rules depend only on the density of neighboring states, are at the same time a versatile tool for exploring dynamical processes on graphs. Here we briefly review our previous results on cellular automata on graphs, emphasizing some systematic relationships between network architecture and dynamics identified in this way. We then extend the investigation towards graphs obtained in a simulated-evolution procedure, starting from Erdő s–Rényi (ER) graphs and selecting for low entropies of the CA dynamics. Our key result is a strong association of low Shannon entropies with a broadening of the graph’s degree distribution.