Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: John Conway proved that every audioactive sequence (a.k.a. look-and-say) decays into a compound of 94 elements, a statement he termed the cosmological theorem. The underlying audioactive process can be modeled by a finite-state machine, mapping one sequence of integers to another. Leveraging automata theory, we propose a new proof of Conway’s theorem based on a few simple machines, using a computer to compose and minimize them.
Source: American Mathematical Monthly
Authors: Pierre Lairez, Aleksandr Storozhenko
Language: English
Subfield: Computational Theory and Mathematics
Field: Computer Science
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W4414325828