In this paper we develop a general approach
for investigating pattern generation problems in multi-dimensional
lattice models. Let $\mathcal S$ be a set of $p$ symbols or
colors, $\mathbf Z_N$ a fixed finite rectangular sublattice of
$\mathbf Z^d$, $d\geq 1$ and $N$ a $d$-tuple of positive
integers. Functions $U:\mathbf Z^d\rightarrow \mathcal S$ and
$U_N:\mathbf Z_N\rightarrow \mathcal S$ are called a global
pattern and a local pattern on $\mathbf Z_N$, respectively. We
introduce an ordering matrix $\mathbf X_N$ for $\Sigma_N$, the
set of all local patterns on $\mathbf Z_N$.
For a larger finite
lattice
,
, we derive a
recursion formula to obtain the ordering matrix
of
from
$\mathbf X_N$. For a given basic admissible local patterns set
$\mathcal B\subset \Sigma_N$, the transition matrix
$\mathbf T_N(\mathcal B)$ is defined. For each
,
denoted by
the set of all local
patterns which can be generated from $\mathcal B$, the cardinal
number of
is the sum of entries
of the transition matrix
which can be obtained from $\mathbf T_N(\mathcal B)$
recursively. The spatial entropy $h(\mathcal B)$ can be obtained
by computing the maximum eigenvalues of a sequence of transition
matrices $\mathbf T_n(\mathcal B)$. The results can be applied
to study the set of global stationary solutions in various Lattice
Dynamical Systems and Cellular Neural Networks.