On the potential use of cellular automata machines for electromagnetic field solution

In this paper, the potential use of cellular automata machines for electromagnetic field solution is investigated. Cellular automata are computational models that operate on a discrete spatial lattice, evolve in discrete time, and employ simple discrete variables. We specifically examine the lattice gas automata which use simple variables to describe particles that interact with nearest neighbours on the lattice through simple rules. They are suitable for modelling the linear wave equation in two dimensions. A benefit of the cellular automata approach is that low-cost, special-purpose digital hardware exists for their efficient evaluation. The current state-of-the-art cellular automata machine is CAM-8. Computational experiments carried out on CAM-8 are provided for problems involving plane wave interaction with perfectly conducting and dielectric media in two dimensions. The examples indicate the potential use of lattice gas automata for modelling electromagnetics and their efficient evaluation using cellular automata machines.