A search algorithm for the maximal attractor of a cellular automaton
Résumé
We construct an algorithm which finds the maximal attractors (limit sets) of certain cellular automata whose maximal attractor is a sofic subshift. The algorithm first finds signal subshifts of a given automaton, constructs their join, and finally forward images of this join. When this procedure stops, the algorithm tests whether a special condition of decreasing preimages is satisfied. If so, the maximal attractor has been attained.