Computing with membranes (P systems): A variant

Abstract

Membrane Computing is a recently introduced area of Molecular Computing, where a computation takes place in a membrane structure where multisets of objects evolve according to given rules (they can also pass through membranes). The obtained computing models were called P systems. In basic variants of P systems, the use of objects evolution rules is regulated by a given priority relation; moreover, each membrane has a label and one can send objects to precise membranes, identified by their labels. We propose here a variant where we get rid of both there rather artificial (non-biochemical) features. Instead, we add to membranes and to objects an "electrical charge" and the objects are passed through membranes according to their charge. We prove that such systems are able to characterize the one-letter recursively enumerable languages (equivalently, the recursively enumerable sets of natural numbers), providing that an extra feature is considered: the membranes can be made thicker or thinner (also dissolved) and the communication through a membrane is possible only when its thickness is equal to 1. Several open problems are formulated. © 2000 World Scientific Publishing Company.