Multicellular mechanochemical hybrid cellular Potts model of tissue formation during epithelial‐mesenchymal transition

As described in our prior work [1] and others [2], the two-dimensional domain of the CPM lattice ⌦ contains interconnected sites or nodes !x 2 ⌦ with states ( !x ) that denote the indices of distinct “cells.” Each distinct cell-occupied site is defined by ( !x ) 2 {1, 2, 3, . . .}, and an unoccupied site, representing the underlying extracellular matrix, is defined by ( !x ) = 0. The area term Harea approximates the cell area constraint as a deviation of the cell area, relative to a specified target or “ideal” area, such that