{
  "abstract": "Conway's Game of Life shows that simple rules can generate a rich diversity of emerging structures. This cellular automaton has been translated to continuous space by Rafler (2011) in a simulation called SmoothLife. The isotropic rule of this continuous Game of Life generates patterns whose beauty has attracted the attention of a growing community at the intersection of science and computer art. We study a minimal variant of this model, continuous in space and time, that generates cell-like patterns capable of self-replicating, gliding and disappearing. The phenomenology of these unit patterns is reported and related to homogeneous-state bifurcations, symmetry breaking, observed shape instabilities, finite-amplitude morphological changes, and a dilute-to-dense transition associated with cell proliferation. Its mapping onto a large reaction-diffusion system is interpreted in terms of homeostatic concentrations of morphogens, regulated by the nonlinear survival rule and generated through a cell-sourced cascade of auxiliary reactions. Introducing a global conservation law that limits resource availability causes the system to self-organize at this dilute-to-dense transition, which we call the edge of growth. A further exploration of parameter space reveals a variety of phases and the richness of life-like morphologies organized around this edge. Resemblance to biological processes such as division, motility, and death, together with a concise formulation and numerical implementation, makes the continuous Game of Life an appealing model system for investigating the emergence and self-organization of life-like patterns.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": "2607.27402",
  "author_total": 2,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Alexandre Guillet"
    },
    {
      "name": "Frank Jülicher"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0k8rxkt3jf6h0.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.48550/arxiv.2607.27402",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "0k8rxkt3jf6h0",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.27402",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": "CC0-1.0",
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "arxiv",
      "nlin.AO"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "nlin.PS"
    ],
    [
      "arxiv",
      "physics.bio-ph"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1703|Cellular Automata and Applications"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7172027076",
  "pdf_url": "https://arxiv.org/pdf/2607.27402",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-09-05",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0k8rxkt3jf6h0.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-10-30T12:19:48Z",
      "native_id": "2607.27402",
      "source": "arxiv",
      "url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.27402"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:physics.bio-ph",
      "subfield": "biological-medical"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "arxiv:nlin.AO",
      "subfield": "statistical-nonlinear"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Continuous Game of Life: cell emergence and self-organization at the edge of growth",
  "title_text": "Continuous Game of Life: cell emergence and self-organization at the edge of growth",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-10-30T12:19:48Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/0k8rxkt3jf6h0",
  "venue": "arXiv",
  "versions": []
}