Queens of the Hill

Inspired by the programming game Core Wars, we propose in this work a framework and the organization of king of the hill-style tournaments between P systems. We call these tournaments Queens of the Hill and the individual contestants valkyries. The goal of each valkyrie is to dissolve as many membranes of as many other valkyries as possible, while at the same time resisting the attacks. Valkyries are transition P systems with cooperative rules, target indication, and rudimentary matter–anti-matter annihilation rules. These ingredients are sufficient for computational completeness, but the context of Queens of the Hill reduces the relevance of this statement. We give some tentative examples of strategies and discuss their advantages and drawbacks. Finally, we describe how Queens of the Hill can be used as a teaching exercise, and also a tool to federate the students’ creativity to push the frontiers of membrane computing.