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Updated: Feb 8, 2026
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Exploring the Landscape of Nonequilibrium Memories with Neural Cellular Automata
Ehsan Pajouheshgar1, Aditya Bhardwaj2,3, Nathaniel Selub4
1École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), IC and SB Schools, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Physical Review Letters
|February 6, 2026
Summary
Researchers discovered a vast landscape of many-body memories in 2D systems, going beyond Toom's rule. These novel dynamics exhibit distinct error correction and information preservation mechanisms, revealing richer physics than previously understood.
Area of Science:
- Complex Systems
- Statistical Physics
- Machine Learning
Background:
- Many-body memories are dynamical systems retaining information over long timescales.
- Toom's rule is the only extensively studied 2D memory mechanism.
- Previous understanding of 2D memory landscapes was limited.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the full landscape of 2D many-body memory dynamics.
- To identify novel memory mechanisms beyond Toom's rule.
- To characterize the properties of these newly discovered memories.
Main Methods:
- Rigorous mathematical proofs.
- Application of machine learning techniques.
- Analysis of local nonequilibrium dynamics.
Main Results:
- Discovery of a vast landscape of 2D memories.
- Identification of memories with distinct error-correction capabilities.
- Observation of ordered phases stabilized by fluctuations.
- Finding memories that preserve information specifically in noisy environments.
Conclusions:
- Physical systems exhibit diverse strategies for robust information storage.
- The physics of many-body memories is significantly richer than previously assumed.
- Novel memory dynamics offer new paradigms for information processing in physical systems.
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