Lightspeed bubble

A lightspeed bubble is a type of negative spaceship traveling through the zebra stripes agar. The center of the bubble is simple empty space, and the length and/or width of the bubble can usually be extended to any desired size.

Below is a small stabilized section of agar containing a sample lightspeed bubble, found by Gabriel Nivasch in August 1999. The bubble travels to the left at the speed of light, so it will eventually reach the edge of any finite patch and destroy itself and its supporting agar.

x = 58, y = 58, rule = B3/S23:T58,58 $58o2$58o2$58o2$58o2$58o2$58o2$9o2b3o2b3o2b37o$10b2o3b2o3b2o8bo$9o3b2o 3b2o3bob2obo4b26o$24b2o5bo$9o17b32o$27bo$9o19b30o$28bo4bo$9o19b2o4b24o $28bo5bo4bo$9o19b2o4b2o4b18o$28bo5bo5bo4bo$9o19b2o4b2o4b2o4b12o$28bo5b o5bo5bo4bo$9o19b2o4b2o4b2o4b2o4b6o$28bo5bo5bo5bo5bo$9o19b2o4b2o4b2o4b 2o4b6o$28bo5bo5bo5bo4bo$9o19b2o4b2o4b2o4b12o$28bo5bo5bo4bo$9o19b2o4b2o 4b18o$28bo5bo4bo$9o19b2o4b24o$28bo4bo$9o19b30o$27bo$9o17b32o$24b2o5bo $9o3b2o3b2o3bob2obo4b26o$10b2o3b2o3b2o8bo$9o2b3o2b3o2b37o2$58o2$58o2$ 58o2$58o2$58o2$58o2$58o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 ZOOM 9.2 HEIGHT 500 GPS 15 AUTOSTART ]] #C Will it be better if people can see the sides of the torus?

(click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here

An open problem related to lightspeed bubbles was whether large extensible empty areas could be created whose length was not proportional to the width (as it must be in the above case, due to the tapering back edge). This was solved in February 2017 by Arie Paap; a simple period-2 solution is shown below.

x = 59, y = 44, rule = B3/S23:T59,44 59o2$59o$53bo$20o2b3o2b3o2b3o2b8o2b4o3b5o$21b2o3b2o3b2o3b2o8b2o5bo$20o 3b2o3b2o3b2o3b7o3bob2o2b5o$41bo8b2o$20o22b2obo6b7o$42bo12bo$20o22bo13b 3o$42b2o5b2o4bo$20o22b2o3b2o3bob5o$42bo2bob2o3bo$20o22bo6b2o3b5o$42b2o 10bo$20o22b2o10b5o$42bo6b2obo$20o22bo2bob2o3bob5o$42b2o3b2o6bo$20o22b 2o5b2o5b3o$42bo12bo$20o22bo11b5o$42b2o5b2ob2o$20o22b2o3b2o3b2o2b3o$42b o2bob2o5b2o$20o22bo6b2o4b4o$42b2o$20o22b2o11b4o$42bo6b2o3b2o$20o22bo2b ob2o3b2o2b3o$42b2o3b2o3b2o$20o22b2o5b2o3b5o$42bo12bo$22o5bo5bo5bo2bob o11b3o$25b2o4b2o4b2o3bo3bobo7bo$24ob2ob2ob2ob2ob2ob9o7b3o$55bo$49o3b7o $50b2o$49o2b8o2$59o! #C [[ THUMBSIZE 2 THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 SUPPRESS THUMBLAUNCH ]] #C [[ THEME 6 GRID GRIDMAJOR 0 THUMBLAUNCH THUMBSIZE 2 GPS 8 ZOOM 6 ]]

(click above to open LifeViewer) RLE: here Plaintext: here

External links

• Lightspeed bubble at the Life Lexicon
• Re: Agar crawlers (discussion thread) at the ConwayLife.com forums