On packing spheres into containers (about Kepler's finite sphere packing problem)
Abstract
In an Euclidean -space, the container problem asks to pack equally sized spheres into a minimal dilate of a fixed container. If the container is a smooth convex body and we show that solutions to the container problem can not have a ``simple structure'' for large . By this we in particular find that there exist arbitrary small , such that packings in a smooth, 3-dimensional convex body, with a maximum number of spheres of radius , are necessarily not hexagonal close packings. This contradicts Kepler's famous statement that the cubic or hexagonal close packing ``will be the tightest possible, so that in no other arrangement more spheres could be packed into the same container''.
Cite
@article{arxiv.math/0506200,
title = {On packing spheres into containers (about Kepler's finite sphere packing problem)},
author = {Achill Schuermann},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:math/0506200},
year = {2011}
}
Comments
13 pages, 2 figures; v2: major revision, extended result, simplified and clarified proof