Given an original DNF list s , this can be done using PI[s, n] : PI[s_, n_] := Union[Flatten[ FixedPointList[f[Last[#], n] &, {{}, s}] 〚 All, 1 〛 , 1]] g[a_, b_] := With[{i = Position[Transpose[{a, b}], {0,1}]}, If[Length[i]  1 && Delete[a, i] === Delete[b, i], {ReplacePart[a, _, i]}, {}]] f[s_, n_] := With[ {w = Flatten[Apply[Outer[g, #1, #2, 1] &, Partition[Table[ Select[s, Count[#, 1]  i &], {i, 0, n}], 2, 1], {1}], 3]}, {Complement[s, w, SameTest  MatchQ], w}] The minimal DNF then consists of a collection of these prime implicants.

The possible configurations that repeat with period p then correspond to the finite complement language (see page 958 ) obtained by stringing together these blocks.

And indeed, of the 4096 symmetric 5-neighbor rules, only identity and complement conserve e[s] . … Of the 262,144 9-neighbor outer totalistic rules the only ones that conserve e[s] are identity and complement.