transient dynamics in non equilibrium complex systems

• DOI: 10.17605/osf.io/ub29p
• Publication Date: 2018-07-26
• Authors: Sellis, Diamantis
• Keywords: model; Computer Sciences; Other Life Sciences; cellular automata; game of life; Physical Sciences and Mathematics; Life Sciences; complexity; complex system; Other Computer Sciences

The dynamics of complex systems far from their equilibrium state are currently not fully understood. Besides the theoretical interest for better understanding the world around us this limitation has important practical implications to our ability to model, understand and therefore manage and control complex systems. In a first step to better understand the non- equilibrium dynamics and improve our ability to model complex systems I implement a cellular automaton model of gas mixing. I simulate the evolution towards equilibrium starting from a state of macroscopic order and as the system evolves I calculate the Kolmogorov complexity, the information entropy and the box-counting dimension of the system. I observe a transient peak in complexity, entropy and fractality of the system. To test the genericity of this pattern I implement a very different model, the game of life, where I find the same statistical patterns.