The one-dimensional cyclic cellular automaton: A system with deterministic dynamics that emulates an interacting particle system with stochastic dynamics (Q914273)

Let \(N\geq 2\) be a fixed integer and \(X=\{0,1,2,...,N-1\}^ Z\). The one- dimensional N-color cyclic cellular automaton \(\{\eta_ i\}\) is a time- discrete process evolving in the following way: at the beginning, \(\eta_ 0\) is distributed uniformly in the N-colors: \(P[\eta_ 0(x)=j]=1/N\) for all \(x\in Z\). Then, for each \(x\in Z\), \[ \eta_{i+1}(x)=(\eta_ i(x)+1)mod N\quad if\quad \eta_ i(x+1)\quad or\quad \eta_ i(x-1)\equiv (\eta_ i(x)+1)mod N,\text{ and } \eta_{i+1}(x)=\eta_ i(x)\quad otherwise. \] This paper proves that each site changes color infinitely often if \(N\leq 4\) but only finitely often if \(N\geq 5\). This result is an analogue of that obtained by \textit{M. Bramson} and \textit{D. Griffeath} [Ann. Probab. 17, 26-45 (1989; Zbl 0673.60103) ] for the corresponding particle system with continuous time parameter. Here, for \(N=5\), a new argument is needed.