Looking for a notebook with the "glowing gasket"

Just a start:

Graphics[{Gray, Circle[], 
  Disk @@@ Flatten[
    Table[1/(k^2 + 2) {{(-1)^r (-k^2 + 1), -2 (-1)^j k}, 1}, {k, 0, 
      9}, {j, 0, 1}, {r, 0, 1}], 2]}]

enter image description here

by way of an old post Minimalistic code challenge on Apollonian gaskets .

Towards a more complete solution, I always find it useful to analyze what such an image (e.g., from Indra's Pearls) does graphically to better understand what one may need to do Mathematically.

So...

enter image description here

I started by simply drawing blue circles on top of your originally posted image to identify what appear like the separate pieces assembled to create the image.

All the circles appear as overlapped Apollonian gaskets. The top 2 circles and the horizontal line at the middle of the original image defining black area, then a smaller Apollonian gasket fit within the black area.

The original image does have more going on in it, but by identifying the distinct pieces one can begin to build something to replicate it.

More to follow...

@Wolfgang123's comment points to a more elegant solution, but until someone posts it, I continue to build on my step-by-simple-step... (updated, knowing this has gotten a little silly).

disks = Disk @@@ 
   Flatten[Table[
     1/(k^2 + 2) {{(-1)^r (-k^2 + 1), -2 (-1)^j k}, 1}, {k, 0, 9}, {j,
       0, 1}, {r, 0, 1}], 2];
littleCircle = Graphics[{Black, Circle[{0, 0.25}, {0.25, 0.25}]}];
square = Graphics[{Red, Rectangle[{-1, -1}, {1, 1}]}];
outer = Graphics[{Yellow, Thick, Circle[]}];
inner = Graphics[{EdgeForm[Directive[Thick, Yellow]], Opacity[0.5], 
    Orange, Thick, disks}];
arc1 = Graphics[Circle[{-1, 1}, 1, {4 Pi/2.666, 2 Pi}]];
arc2 = Graphics[Circle[{1, 1}, 1, {Pi/-1, -0.5 Pi}]];
Show[square, outer, inner, littleCircle,
 arc1,
 arc2,
 Graphics[Circle[{1, 1}, 1, {Pi/-1, -0.5 Pi}]],
 Graphics[Circle[{  0.000, 0.115}, {0.115, 0.115}]],
 Graphics[Circle[{  0.123, 0.310}, {0.115, 0.115}]],
 Graphics[Circle[{-0.115, 0.310}, {0.115, 0.115}]],
 Graphics[Line[{{-1, 0}, {1, 0}}]]]

enter image description here

Possible next steps for further exploration...

As I've come to understand this.

One can obtain these "Indra's pearls" by inverting four tangent circles with centers A, B, C, & G on each other iteratively.

enter image description here

(Non-Mathematica generated image)

The limit set of the above process = a fractal packing of tangent circles or a "gasket" resembling the Sierpinski triangle gasket.

When the central circle of inversion does not sit tangent to the 3 others, but intersects them at specific angles like pi/3, pi/4, pi/5 ... then we gets other kinds of gaskets, e.g., for pi/3

enter image description here

(Non-Mathematica generated image)


I'll let someone else do the coloring and other sundry operations. Instead, I'll show how to apply a Möbius transformation to a circle (code originally adapted from here):

moebiusCircle[{{a_, b_}, {c_, d_}}, Circle[{x0_, y0_}, r_]] := 
   Block[{z0 = x0 + I y0, den}, den = Abs[c z0 + d]^2 - Abs[r c]^2; 
         Circle[ReIm[((a z0 + b) Conjugate[c z0 + d] - a Conjugate[c] r^2)/den],
                r Abs[b c - a d]/den]]

With that,

amat = {{Sqrt[2], I}, {-I, Sqrt[2]}};
bmat = {{Sqrt[2], 1}, {1, Sqrt[2]}};
ainv = Inverse[amat]; binv = Inverse[bmat];

trList = DeleteDuplicates[Dot @@@ Tuples[N[{amat, bmat, ainv, binv}, 20], 7]];

circs = {Circle[ReIm[Sqrt[2]], 1], Circle[ReIm[I Sqrt[2]], 1],
         Circle[ReIm[-Sqrt[2]], 1], Circle[ReIm[-I Sqrt[2]], 1]};

Graphics[Join[circs,
              DeleteDuplicates[DeleteCases[Flatten[Outer[moebiusCircle, trList, circs, 1]],
                                           Circle[_, _?Negative]]]]]

circle chain


I wrote a notebook for the illustration of the "glowing gasket",

as described in the book "Indra's Pearl's: the Vision of Felix Klein" by D. Mumford, C. Series and D. Wright

The notebook is public available and includes some comments, how it works:

https://www.wolframcloud.com/obj/e76fd8c5-ed6c-4136-a7f8-eac578361363

and here is an illustration.

glowing gasket