Related papers: A computer verification of the Kepler conjecture
Determining the minimum density of a covering of $\mathbb{R}^{n}$ by Euclidean unit balls as $n\to\infty$ is a major open problem, with the best known results being the lower bound of $\left(\mathrm{e}^{-3/2}+o(1)\right)n$ by Coxeter, Few…
In this paper we study congruent and non-congruent hyperball (hypersphere) packings of the truncated regular octahedron and cube tilings. These are derived from the Coxeter simplex tilings $\{p,3,4\}$ $(7\le p \in \mathbb{N})$ and…
We show that every packing of congruent regular pentagons in the Euclidean plane has density at most $(5-\sqrt5)/3$, which is about 0.92. More specifically, this article proves the pentagonal ice-ray conjecture of Henley (1986), and…
The Hales program to prove the Kepler conjecture on sphere packings consists of five steps, which if completed, will jointly comprise a proof of the conjecture. We carry out step five of the program [outlined in math.MG/9811073], a proof…
In the early 1990s, A. Bezdek and W. Kuperberg used a relatively simple argument to show a surprising result: The maximum packing density of circular cylinders of infinite length in $\mathbb{R}^3$ is exactly $\pi/\sqrt{12}$, the planar…
We prove that for all fixed $p > 2$, the translative packing density of unit $\ell_p$-balls in $\mathbb{R}^n$ is at most $2^{(\gamma_p + o(1))n}$ with $\gamma_p < - 1/p$. This is the first exponential improvement in high dimensions since…
The ball (or sphere) packing problem with equal balls, without any symmetry assumption, in a $3$-dimensional space of constant curvature was settled by B\"or\"oczky and Florian for the hyperbolic space $\HYP$ in \cite{BF64} and by proving…
The Kneser-Poulsen conjecture says that if a finite collection of balls in a d-dimensional Euclidean space is rearranged so that the distance between each pair of centers does not get smaller, then the volume of the union of these balls…
Using transversality and a dimension reduction argument, a result of A. Bezdek and W. Kuperberg is applied to polycylinders $\mathbb{D}^2\times \mathbb{R}^n$, showing that the optimal packing density is $\pi/\sqrt{12}$ in any dimension.
We raise and investigate the following problem that one can regard as a very close relative of the densest sphere packing problem. If the Euclidean 3-space is partitioned into convex cells each containing a unit ball, how should the shapes…
One of the basic problems in discrete geometry is to determine the most efficient packing of congruent replicas of a given convex set $K$ in the plane or in space. The most commonly used measure of efficiency is density. Several types of…
We generate non-lattice packings of spheres in up to 22 dimensions using the geometrical constraint satisfaction algorithm RRR. Our aggregated data suggest that it is easy to double the density of Ball's lower bound, and more tentatively,…
In \cite{Sz17-2} we proved that to each saturated congruent hyperball packing exists a decomposition of $3$-dimensional hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^3$ into truncated tetrahedra. Therefore, in order to get a density upper bound for…
In 2008, Schmidt and Tuller stated a conjecture concerning optimal packing and covering of integers by translates of a given three-point set. In this note, we confirm their conjecture and relate it to several other problems in…
We study dense packings of a large number of congruent non-overlapping circles inside a square by looking for configurations which maximize the packing density, defined as the ratio between the area occupied by the disks and the area of the…
Particle packing problems have fascinated people since the dawn of civilization, and continue to intrigue mathematicians and scientists. Resurgent interest has been spurred by the recent proof of Kepler's conjecture: the face-centered cubic…
The congestion of a curve is a measure of how much it zigzags around locally. More precisely, a curve $\pi$ is $c$-packed if the length of the curve lying inside any ball is at most $c$ times the radius of the ball, and its congestion is…
Let $L \subset {\Bbb R}^3$ be the union of unit balls, whose centres lie on the $z$-axis, and are equidistant with distance $2d \in [2, 2\sqrt{2}]$. Then a packing of unit balls in ${\Bbb R}^3$ consisting of translates of $L$ has a density…
We consider circle packings in the plane with circles of sizes $1$, $r\simeq 0.834$ and $s\simeq 0.651$. These sizes are algebraic numbers which allow a compact packing, that is, a packing in which each hole is formed by three mutually…
We use computational experiments to find the rectangles of minimum area into which a given number n of non-overlapping congruent circles can be packed. No assumption is made on the shape of the rectangles. Most of the packings found have…