arXiv subjects

Scott M. Summers

Publications and source records attributed to Scott M. Summers.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2010

Intrinsic Universality in Self-Assembly

We show that the Tile Assembly Model exhibits a strong notion of universality where the goal is to give a single tile assembly system that simulates the behavior of any other tile assembly system. We give a tile assembly system that is capable of simulating a very wide class of tile systems, including itself. Specifically, we give a tile set that simulates the assembly of any tile assembly system in a class of systems that we call \emph{locally consistent}: each tile binds with exactly the strength needed to stay attached, and that there are no glue mismatches between tiles in any produced assembly. Our construction is reminiscent of the studies of \emph{intrinsic universality} of cellular automata by Ollinger and others, in the sense that our simulation of a tile system $T$ by a tile system $U$ represents each tile in an assembly produced by $T$ by a $c \times c$ block of tiles in $U$, where $c$ is a constant depending on $T$ but not on the size of the assembly $T$ produces (which may in fact be infinite). Also, our construction improves on earlier simulations of tile assembly systems by other tile assembly systems (in particular, those of Soloveichik and Winfree, and of Demaine et al.) in that we simulate the actual process of self-assembly, not just the end result, as in Soloveichik and Winfree's construction, and we do not discriminate against infinite structures. Both previous results simulate only temperature 1 systems, whereas our construction simulates tile assembly systems operating at temperature 2.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2009

Reducing Tile Complexity for the Self-Assembly of Scaled Shapes Through Temperature Programming

This paper concerns the self-assembly of scaled-up versions of arbitrary finite shapes. We work in the multiple temperature model that was introduced by Aggarwal, Cheng, Goldwasser, Kao, and Schweller (Complexities for Generalized Models of Self-Assembly, SODA 2004). The multiple temperature model is a natural generalization of Winfree's abstract tile assembly model, where the temperature of a tile system is allowed to be shifted up and down as self-assembly proceeds. We first exhibit two constant-size tile sets in which scaled-up versions of arbitrary shapes self-assemble. Our first tile set has the property that each scaled shape self-assembles via an asymptotically "Kolmogorov-optimum" temperature sequence but the scaling factor grows with the size of the shape being assembled. In contrast, our second tile set assembles each scaled shape via a temperature sequence whose length is proportional to the number of points in the shape but the scaling factor is a constant independent of the shape being assembled. We then show that there is no constant-size tile set that can uniquely assemble an arbitrary (non-scaled, connected) shape in the multiple temperature model, i.e., the scaling is necessary for self-assembly. This answers an open question of Kao and Schweller (Reducing Tile Complexity for Self-Assembly Through Temperature Programming, SODA 2006), who asked whether such a tile set existed.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2009

Self-Assembly of Infinite Structures

We review some recent results related to the self-assembly of infinite structures in the Tile Assembly Model. These results include impossibility results, as well as novel tile assembly systems in which shapes and patterns that represent various notions of computation self-assemble. Several open questions are also presented and motivated.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2009

Limitations of Self-Assembly at Temperature One (extended abstract)

We prove that if a subset X of the integer Cartesian plane weakly self-assembles at temperature 1 in a deterministic (Winfree) tile assembly system satisfying a natural condition known as *pumpability*, then X is a finite union of doubly periodic sets. This shows that only the most simple of infinite shapes and patterns can be constructed using pumpable temperature 1 tile assembly systems, and gives strong evidence for the thesis that temperature 2 or higher is required to carry out general-purpose computation in a tile assembly system. Finally, we show that general-purpose computation is possible at temperature 1 if negative glue strengths are allowed in the tile assembly model.

cs.CC↗

arXiv2009

Strict Self-Assembly of Discrete Sierpinski Triangles

Winfree (1998) showed that discrete Sierpinski triangles can self-assemble in the Tile Assembly Model. A striking molecular realization of this self-assembly, using DNA tiles a few nanometers long and verifying the results by atomic-force microscopy, was achieved by Rothemund, Papadakis, and Winfree (2004). Precisely speaking, the above self-assemblies tile completely filled-in, two-dimensional regions of the plane, with labeled subsets of these tiles representing discrete Sierpinski triangles. This paper addresses the more challenging problem of the strict self-assembly of discrete Sierpinski triangles, i.e., the task of tiling a discrete Sierpinski triangle and nothing else. We first prove that the standard discrete Sierpinski triangle cannot strictly self-assemble in the Tile Assembly Model. We then define the fibered Sierpinski triangle, a discrete Sierpinski triangle with the same fractal dimension as the standard one but with thin fibers that can carry data, and show that the fibered Sierpinski triangle strictly self-assembles in the Tile Assembly Model. In contrast with the simple XOR algorithm of the earlier, non-strict self-assemblies, our strict self-assembly algorithm makes extensive, recursive use of optimal counters, coupled with measured delay and corner-turning operations. We verify our strict self-assembly using the local determinism method of Soloveichik and Winfree (2007).

cs.DM↗

arXiv2008

Self-Assembly of Discrete Self-Similar Fractals

In this paper, we search for {\it absolute} limitations of the Tile Assembly Model (TAM), along with techniques to work around such limitations. Specifically, we investigate the self-assembly of fractal shapes in the TAM. We prove that no self-similar fractal fully weakly self-assembles at temperature 1, and that certain kinds of self-similar fractals do not strictly self-assemble at any temperature. Additionally, we extend the fiber construction from Lathrop et. al. (2007) to show that any self-similar fractal belonging to a particular class of "nice" self-similar fractals has a fibered version that strictly self-assembles in the TAM.

cs.CC↗