Cubical token systems (Q943579)

Cubical token systems and media are particular instances of a general algebraic structure, called `token system', describing a mathematical, physical, or behavioral system as it evolves from one `state' to another. This structure is formalized as a pair \(({\mathcal S, T })\) consisting of a set \(S\) of states and a set \(T\) of tokens. Tokens are transformations of the set of states. Strings of tokens are `messages' of the token system. The author introduces basic concepts of token systems in Section 2 and axioms for cubical token systems and media in Section 3, where it is also shown that media form a proper subclass of cubical systems. G-systems are token systems defined on connected families of sets. In Section 4, the author shows that they are instances of cubical systems. G-systems are typical examples of cubical systems as it is demonstrated in Section 6. Structural properties of states and messages of a cubical system are established in Section 5 in terms of their `contents'. These properties are crucial for the development of stochastic token theory presented in Section 8, where stochastic properties of cubical token systems are established. The main result of the algebraic part of cubical systems theory -- the representation theorem -- is established in Section 6 (Theorem 6.1). In Section 7, the author gives some examples of cubical systems.