Related papers: Exploring a planet, revisited
In this paper we report on massive computer experiments aimed at finding spherical point configurations that minimize potential energy. We present experimental evidence for two new universal optima (consisting of 40 points in 10 dimensions…
Let $K_0$ be a compact convex subset of the plane $\mathbb R^2$, and assume that whenever $K_1\subseteq \mathbb R^2$ is congruent to $K_0$, then $K_0$ and $K_1$ are not crossing in a natural sense due to L. Fejes-T\'oth. A theorem of L.…
The problem of interpolation at $(n+1)^2$ points on the unit sphere $\mathbb{S}^2$ by spherical polynomials of degree at most $n$ is proved to have a unique solution for several sets of points. The points are located on a number of circles…
We prove that among all doubly connected domains of $\R^n$ bounded by two spheres of given radii, $Z(t)$, the trace of the heat kernel with Dirichlet boundary conditions, achieves its minimum when the spheres are concentric (i.e., for the…
In this paper we consider the following topics related to results of L\'aszl\'o Fejes T\'oth: (1) The Tammes problem and Fejes T\'oth's bound on circle packings; (2) Fejes T\'oth's problem on maximizing the minimum distance between…
Ptolemy-s planetary model is an ancient geocentric astronomical model, describing the observed motion of the Sun and the planets. Ptolemy accounted for the deviations of planetary orbits from perfect circles by introducing two small and…
In 1959 Fejes T\'oth posed a conjecture that the sum of pairwise non-obtuse angles between $N$ unit vectors in $\mathbb S^d$ is maximized by periodically repeated elements of the standard orthonormal basis. We obtain new improved upper…
We present a novel feasibility criteria for the finite intersection of convex sets given by inequalities. This criteria allows us to easily assert the feasibility by analyzing the unconstrained minimum of a speci?fic convex function, that…
Let $S$ be a set of points in $\mathbb{R}^2$ contained in a circle and $P$ an unrestricted point set in $\mathbb{R}^2$. We prove the number of distinct distances between points in $S$ and points in $P$ is at least…
We find explicit formulas for the radii and locations of the circles in all the optimally dense packings of two, three or four equal circles on any flat torus, defined to be the quotient of the Euclidean plane by the lattice generated by…
Projection methods are popular algorithms for iteratively solving feasibility problems in Euclidean or even Hilbert spaces. They employ (selections of) nearest point mappings to generate sequences that are designed to approximate a point in…
Witsenhausen's problem asks for the maximum fraction $\alpha_n$ of the $n$-dimensional unit sphere that can be covered by a measurable set containing no pairs of orthogonal points. The best upper bounds for $\alpha_n$ are given by…
The following conjecture was proposed in 2010 by S. Lando. Let M and N be two unions of the same number of disjoint circles in a sphere. Then there exist two spheres in 3-space whose intersection is transversal and is a union of disjoint…
How to distribute a set of points uniformly on a spherical surface is a very old problem that still lacks a definite answer. In this work, we introduce a physical measure of uniformity based on the distribution of distances between points,…
We examine packing of $n$ congruent spheres in a cube when $n$ is close but less than the number of spheres in a regular cubic close-packed (ccp) arrangement of $\lceil p^{3}/2\rceil$ spheres. For this family of packings, the previous…
In this article, as a first contribution, we provide alternative proofs of recent results by Harrison and Jeffs which determine the precise value of the Gromov-Hausdorff (GH) distance between the circle $\mathbb{S}^1$ and the…
For millenia, sailors have used the empirical rule that the elevation angle of Polaris, the North Star, as measured by sextant, quadrant or astrolabe, is approximately equal to latitude. Here, we show using elementary trigonometry that…
We prove that among all doubly connected domains of R^n (n>=2) bounded by two spheres of given radii, the Dirichlet heat content at any fixed time achieves its minimum when the spheres are concentric. This is shown to be a special case of a…
We deal with the distribution of N points placed consecutively around the circle by a fixed angle of a. From the proof of Tony van Ravenstein, we propose a detailed proof of the Steinhaus conjecture whose result is the following: the N…
In this paper, we prove a geometrical inequality which states that for any four points on a hemisphere with the unit radius, the largest sum of distances between the points is 4+4*sqrt(2). In our method, we have constructed a rectangular…