  In this paper we demonstrate the power of a model of tile self-assembly based
on active glues which can dynamically change state. We formulate the
Signal-passing Tile Assembly Model (STAM), based on the model of Padilla, Liu,
and Seeman to be asynchronous, allowing any action of turning a glue on or off,
attaching a new tile, or breaking apart an assembly to happen in any order.
Within this highly generalized model we provide three new solutions to tile
self-assembly problems that have been addressed within the abstract Tile
Assembly Model and its variants, showing that signal passing tiles allow for
substantial improvement across multiple complexity metrics. Our first result
utilizes a recursive assembly process to achieve tile-type efficient assembly
of linear structures, using provably fewer tile types than what is possible in
standard tile assembly models. Our second system of signal-passing tiles
simulates any Turing machine with high fuel efficiency by using only a constant
number of tiles per computation step. Our third system assembles the discrete
Sierpinski triangle, demonstrating that this pattern can be strictly
self-assembled within the STAM. This result is of particular interest in that
it is known that this pattern cannot self-assemble within a number of well
studied tile self-assembly models. Notably, all of our constructions are at
temperature 1, further demonstrating that signal-passing confers the power to
bypass many restrictions found in standard tile assembly models.
