Pietro Speroni di Fenizio, Peter Dittrich (2007)
Chemical Organizations at Different Spatial Scales
In: Proc. European Conference on Artificial Life (ECAL 2007), LNCS 4648, p. 1-11, Springer, Berlin,
preprint (pdf), doi: 10.1007/978-3-540-74913-4_1, ISBN: 978-3-540-74912-7

Abstract:

The dynamics of spatial reaction systems that consists of many molecular species can be difficult to understand. Here we introduce a method that allows to observe the dynamics of a diverse spatial reaction system at different spatial scales. Using chemical organisation theory we define for a given spatial location its so called spatial organisation, which is the organisation generated by the molecular species present in the neighbourhood of this location. The scale determines the size of that neighbourhood. We show that at one scale, patterns become visible that can not be seen at a different scale. Furthermore, different scales tend to map to different parts of the lattice of organisations; at small scales spatial organisations tend to be small (lower part of the lattice of organisations) while at large scales spatial organisations tend to be large (upper part of the lattice of organisations). Finally we show how the right scale can be selected by comparing the spatial reactor with its well-stirred counterpart. The method is illustrated using an Artificial Chemistry.