Process Semantics for Membrane Systems

A process model based on Petri nets is proposed to describe the structure of the behaviour of basic membrane systems. In [12], a systematic and structural link has been established between a basic class of membrane systems and Petri nets. To capture the compartmentisation of membrane systems, Place/Transition nets with explicit localities have been introduced. Each locality identifies a distinct set of transitions which may only be executed synchronously, i.e., in a locally maximal concurrent manner. Here, we develop the notion of a process for these nets. The resulting formalism should be of use in the investigation of the ways in which computations of membrane systems can evolve.