Computationally universal P systems without priorities: two catalysts are sufficient

The original model of P systems with symbol objects introduced by Păun was shown to be computationally universal, provided that catalysts and priorities of rules are used. By reduction via register machines Sosík and Freund proved that the priorities may be omitted from the model without loss of computational power. Freund, Oswald, and Sosík considered several variants of P systems with catalysts (but without priorities) and investigated the number of catalysts needed for these specific variants to be computationally universal. It was shown that for the classic model of P systems with the minimal number of two membranes the number of catalysts can be reduced from six to five; using the idea of final states the number of catalysts could even be reduced to four. In this paper we are able to reduce the number of catalysts again: two catalysts are already sufficient. For extended P systems we even need only one membrane and two catalysts. For the (purely) catalytic systems considered by Ibarra only three catalysts are already enough. © 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.