Artificial Chemistry - Formal Definition

Formal Definition

An artificial chemistry is defined in general as a triple (S,R,A). In some cases it is sufficient to define it as a tuple (S,I).

  • S is the set of possible molecules S={s1...,sn}, where n is the number of elements in the set, possibly infinite.
  • R is a set of n-ary operations on the molecules in S, the reaction rules R={r1...,rn}. Each rule ri is written like a chemical reaction a+b+c->a*+b*+c*. Note here that ri are operators, as opposed to +.
  • A is an algorithm describing how to apply the rules R to a subset PS.
  • I are the interaction rules of the molecules in S.

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