Questions tagged [sphere-packing]
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70
questions
8
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Why is modular forms applicable to packing density bounds from linear programming at $n\in\{8,24\}$?
Sphere packing problem in $\mathbb R^n$ asks for the densest arrangement of non-overlapping spheres within $\mathbb R^n$. It is now know that the problem is solved at $n=8$ and $n=24$ using modular ...
5
votes
1answer
192 views
6
votes
1answer
266 views
Sphere packing processes during biological development
Within the context of mathematical biology, a sphere packing problem occurred to me. I must note that unlike the typical sphere packing problems, the variant I consider involves minimising the average ...
1
vote
1answer
146 views
Prospects for deep learning of non-lattice sphere packings
I have been looking for litterature on results obtained by deep neural networks to find dense (and quite possibly non-lattice, perhaps even non-periodic) sphere packings, but I have not been too ...
2
votes
0answers
34 views
Simplicial density function simultaneously defined for hyperbolic and spherical space (Kellerhals, 1998)
I am confused about the proof of Corollary 4.2 in "Ball Packings in Spaces of Constant Curvature and the Simplicial Density Function". The point of confusion is equation 4.3, where Kellerhals states ...
10
votes
1answer
562 views
Illustrating that universal optimality is stronger than sphere packing
I'm a physicist interested in the conformal bootstrap, one version of which was recently shown to have many similarities to the problem of sphere packing. Sphere packing in $\mathbf{R}^d$ has been ...
2
votes
1answer
182 views
Sphere packing and kissing numbers in 3D
When one looks at the way cannon balls and oranges are normally packed by the military and by groceries, it seems intuively clear that there is no way anybody can pack these any tighter. However, it ...
8
votes
2answers
876 views
How many cones with angle theta can I pack into the unit sphere?
Given a unit sphere (radius 1), I would like to know how many cones I can pack into this unit sphere. Restrictions: The top of the cone needs to be in the center of origin. The bottom of the cone ...
4
votes
0answers
98 views
Do kissing numbers with distance $d$ always grow polynomially or exponentially in dimension?
Let $A_d(n)$ be the largest number of points that can be packed on the $n$-unit sphere, such that every point is at least $d$ apart. Compare with, for instance, https://arxiv.org/abs/1507.03631
When ...
21
votes
0answers
241 views
Can 4-space be partitioned into Klein bottles?
It is known that $\mathbb{R}^3$ can be partitioned into disjoint circles,
or into disjoint unit circles, or into congruent copies of a real-analytic curve
(Is it possible to partition $\mathbb R^3$ ...
23
votes
1answer
520 views
Is there a short proof of the decidability of Kepler's Conjecture?
I've believed that the answer is "yes" for years, as suggested in various sources with reference to Tóth's work. For example, the Wikipedia article for Kepler Conjecture says:
The next step toward ...
14
votes
2answers
700 views
The Disco Ball Problem
Let me first give some of a background as to where I got this problem. I had a math teacher ask me a few months ago: "How many 1 unit by 1 unit squares could one fit on a sphere with a radius of 32 ...
3
votes
1answer
104 views
Question arise from kissing number in 2 dimension
I'm considering an extended problem of kissing number in $\mathbb{R}^2$.
Suppose I have a given disc $\mathcal{D}$ of radius 1/2 and infinitely many discs all of radius 1/2 and all these discs and ...
2
votes
1answer
68 views
Maximal Vertex Degree of MSTs in Euclidean Spaces
Are there any Euclidean spaces, in which the maximal vertex degree of MSTs (Minimum Spanning Trees) of a finite set of points and edge weights equal to Euclidean distance, isn't equal to the kissing ...
3
votes
0answers
41 views
Bound on local packing density of 2D Delaunay cell
What is the history of the result that in a packing of the plane by unit disks, no Delaunay cell can be occupied by disk-sectors whose total measure exceeds $\pi/\sqrt{12}$ times the area of the cell?
...
6
votes
0answers
74 views
Packing points in a lattice
Let $L$ be the square or triangular lattice in the plane, with nearest neighbors having distance 1. Has anyone studied the problem of finding the maximum (okay, supremum) density achieved by a subset ...
1
vote
0answers
189 views
Sphere packings with antipodal (unequal) spheres
Let $\|\cdot\|_2$ denote the Euclidean norm, let $\langle \cdot, \cdot\rangle$ denote the standard dot product, and let $\mathcal{S}^{d-1} = \{\mathbf{x} \in \mathbb{R}^d: \|\mathbf{x}\|_2 = 1\}$ ...
6
votes
1answer
484 views
Randomly covering a sphere
Let $S$ be the $n$-dimensional unit sphere in the Euclidean space. Further,
let $X_1,\ldots,X_k$ and $Y_1,\ldots,Y_m$ be iid $S$-valued random variables with common (unknown) distribution $\mu$. With $...
2
votes
0answers
56 views
Packing net of simplex
For given $d$, we can define the simplex as follows,
$S=\{(x_1,x_2,\cdots,x_d):x_1\geq x_2\geq \cdots\geq x_d\geq 0,\sum x_i=1\}$.
We can define the distance on $S$ as $L_1$ distance.
An $\epsilon$ ...
6
votes
1answer
393 views
Upper bound of the kissing number in n dimensions
In geometry, a kissing number is defined as the number of
non-overlapping unit spheres that can be arranged such that they each
touch another given unit sphere.
Let $\tau_n$ be the kissing number ...
2
votes
1answer
192 views
Packing number of $\ell_1$ ball in $\ell_{\infty}$ metric
Consider the $d$-dimensional $\ell_1$ ball $\mathbb B_d=\{x\in\mathbb R^d: \|x\|_1\leq 1\}$, where $\|x\|_1=\sum_{i=1}^d{|x_i|}$. I'm interested in the maximum size of the (finite) subset $S\subseteq\...
2
votes
1answer
341 views
What high dimensional lattices have Voronoi cells that have this property?
Which high-dimensional lattices (particularly $Z_n^*,D_n,D_n^*,A_n,A_n^*$), exhibit the following property shown in the attached diagram? Two 2D lattices are shown, with the lattice points in red, the ...
10
votes
1answer
309 views
The lattice handshake number (“nearly kissing” number)?
Update: I'm happy to say that this question has been made essentially obsolete by the breakthrough result of Serge Vlăduţ, who showed that the kissing number is exponentially large: https://arxiv.org/...
6
votes
0answers
172 views
Positive-definite lattice with O(n,n) Gram matrix generated by minimal vectors
Consider a positive-definite $2n$-dimensional lattice with minimum norm $\mu$. It is sometimes possible to find a generating set of minimal vectors for the lattice such that the Gram matrix takes the ...
2
votes
1answer
342 views
New Perfect 2-bit Error Correction Code - Are there any other?
I have recently looked through perfect error correcting codes and found the Hamming(7,3) and Golay(23,7). Using a computer program I have found a new 2 bit perfect error correcting code: Code(90, 2).
...
13
votes
1answer
533 views
Vectors that are almost orthogonal on average: lower bounds on dimension?
Let $v_1,\dotsc,v_k \in \mathbb{R}^d$ be unit-length vectors such that
$$\sum_{1\leq i,j\leq k} |\langle v_i,v_j\rangle|^2 \leq \epsilon k^2.$$
What sort of lower bound can we give on $d$ in terms of $...
26
votes
1answer
941 views
Terrible tilers for covering the plane
Let $C$ be a convex shape in the plane.
Your task is to cover the plane with copies of $C$, each under any rigid motion.
My question is essentially: What is the worst $C$, the shape that forces the ...
5
votes
1answer
141 views
Extremal functions for the 'packing density in dimension one'
The $n = 1$ case of Theorem 3.1 of Cohn and Elkies's paper New upper bounds on sphere packings I amounts to the inequality $f(0) \geq 1$ for all ('admissible') functions $f$ on $\mathbb{R}$ satisfying
...
27
votes
1answer
930 views
Optimal sphere packings ==> Thinnest ball coverings?
It was proved by Kershner long ago that the thinnest (least density)
covering of the plane by congruent disks can be obtained
by enlarging the radii of the optimal circle packing to just cover
the ...
17
votes
2answers
462 views
Construction of an optimal electron cage
I will describe the question first in 2D, but my interest is in $\mathbb{R}^3$.
An electron $x$ will shoot from the origin along an initial vector $v$. You know the speed $|v|$ but not the direction.
...
9
votes
1answer
294 views
Best non-lattice sphere packings
Consider a dense sphere packing in $\mathbb{R}^n$, i.e. an arrangement of mutually disjoint solid open spheres, all of the same radius.
In dimensions $2, 3, 8,$ and $24$, it is known that lattice ...
1
vote
0answers
250 views
Finding good high-dimensional sphere coverings in Euclidean space
Suppose we want to cover the unit sphere $\mathcal{S}^{d-1} := \{\mathbf{x} \in \mathbb{R}^d: \|\mathbf{x}\|_2 = 1\}$ with spherical caps $\mathcal{C}_{\mathbf{y}} := \{\mathbf{x} \in \mathcal{S}^{d-1}...
29
votes
2answers
2k views
Understanding sphere packing in higher dimensions
In a recent publication by the Ukrainian mathematician Maryna Viazovska the Kepler problem for dimension $8$ and $24$, namely the densest packing of spheres, was solved.
Admittedly it is very ...
20
votes
1answer
1k views
Sphere packings : what next after the recent breakthrough of Viazovska (et al.)?
Given the march 2016 breakthrough concerning sphere packings by Viazovska for the case of dimension 8, and by Cohn, Kumar, Miller, Radchenko and Viazovska for the case of dimension 24, it follows that ...
11
votes
0answers
189 views
Electrons on a pancake ellipsoid
The problems of minimizing the potential energy of electrons
on a sphere, or maximizing the smallest distance between the electrons,
have been well-studied.
E.g., see the
earlier MO question
"...
3
votes
0answers
273 views
What is the connection between the Riemann Xi-function and n-sphere? [closed]
Riemann's Xi-function is defined as
$$\xi(s) = \pi^{-s/2}\ \Gamma\left(\frac{s}{2}\right)\ \zeta(s)$$
At the same time we have the following formulas for n-sphere's area and volume:
$$\begin{array}{...
14
votes
2answers
441 views
Double kissing problem
Consider two touching unit balls which will be called central balls. What is the maximum number $k$ of non-overlapping unit balls so that each ball touches as least one of two central balls?
An easy ...
4
votes
1answer
224 views
Packing bounds for sumsets, or, very discrete balls
Let $D\subset \mathbb{F}_2^n$ with $D=-D$ and $0\in D$. Write $k D$ for the set of all sums of $k$ (not necessarily distinct) elements of $D$. (This is the "ball" in the title.)
Now let $d(g,h)$ be ...
0
votes
0answers
56 views
Covering number of the range of a function
I have come across the need to know a bound on a certain curious quantity: the covering number of the range of a continuous function $f: D \rightarrow \mathbb{R}^n$, where $D \subseteq \mathbb{R}^m$. ...
3
votes
1answer
164 views
Three-dimensional Apollonian spirals
Given mutually (externally) tangent spheres $S_1$, $S_2$, $S_3$, $S_4$, let $S_n$ be the unique sphere externally tangent to $S_{n-1}$, $S_{n-2}$, $S_{n-3}$, and $S_{n-4}$ for $n \geq 5$.
Let $P_{\...
2
votes
0answers
258 views
Is the kissing number in $n$ dimensions always divisible by $n$? And what is the base of exponential growth of the kissing number?
And why are the kissing numbers for 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 dimensions all highly composite numbers?
5
votes
1answer
217 views
Minimizing deep holes in sphere packings
What's the current state of knowledge regarding packings of spheres in $n$-space that minimize the supremum of the sizes of the holes? This notion of tightness is more rigid than asymptotic density. I ...
7
votes
1answer
319 views
For a 3D Apollonian packing, do we really know that the Hausdorff dimension of the complement is approximated by the growth rate of curvature?
The fractal dimension of the 3D Apollonian packing is computed in this paper.
In the introduction, the authors cite three of Boyd's paper (Ref 2, 5, 6) to support that the fractal dimension (...
6
votes
1answer
172 views
Hiding $k$ disks inside a larger disk
Suppose one has $k$ unit-radius disks, and the goal is to hide them inside
a disk of radius $R \gg k$.
The detection probes are rays along a line.
(Think of the disks as tumor cells, and the rays as ...
0
votes
1answer
208 views
Generalized Sphere Kissing Problem [duplicate]
I am currently researching discrete geometry and I am in need of an upper bound on a generalized kissing number in 3-dimensions dependent upon a parameter $\eta$ which is the radii of spheres touching ...
15
votes
2answers
596 views
Are there locally jammed arrangements of spheres of zero density?
I know of a remarkable result from a paper of
Matthew Kahle (PDF download), that there are arbitrarily low-density
jammed packings of congruent disks in $\mathbb{R}^2$:
In 1964 Böröczky used
a ...
3
votes
2answers
178 views
Techniques for showing optimality of given packing
There are some natural packing problems that have been asked in mathematics. Some of them are:
1)How many balls can be placed with in a cube?
2)How many equidistant points can be place on the ...
5
votes
0answers
729 views
N-balls covering n-balls
This question is a follow-on question from:
Covering a unit ball with balls half the radius
The questions are these:
Given an arbitrary dimension d, and a unit n-ball in d-dimensional Euclidean ...
4
votes
1answer
265 views
Blowing up spheres in a face centered cubic (fcc) packing geometry just enough to cover the volume of the lattice
Imagine I have an infinite lattice of spheres packed in a face centered cubic (fcc) lattice geometry which has the basis: $((-1, -1, 0), (1, -1, 0), (0, 1, -1))$. Here, provided that sphere-sphere ...
4
votes
1answer
413 views
Is there an “accepted” jamming limit for hard spheres placed in the unit cube by random sequential adsorption?
I have a unit cube, and operating in the continuum limit (i.e. not on a lattice), I sequentially place spheres of some radius $r$ inside the cube until a filled volume "jamming limit" $\theta_{spheres}...
