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Hypersphere Packing


CirclePacking

In two dimensions, there are two periodic circle packings for identical circles: square lattice and hexagonal lattice. In 1940, Fejes Tóth proved that the hexagonal lattice is the densest of all possible plane packings (Conway and Sloane 1993, pp. 8-9).

The analog of face-centered cubic packing is the densest lattice packing in four and five dimensions. In eight dimensions, the densest lattice packing is made up of two copies of face-centered cubic. In six and seven dimensions, the densest lattice packings are cross sections of the eight-dimensional case. In 24 dimensions, the densest packing appears to be the Leech lattice. For high dimensions (∼1000-D), the densest known packings are nonlattice.

The densest lattice packings of hyperspheres in n dimensions are known rigorously for n=1, 2, ..., 8, and have packing densities delta_n summarized in the following table, which also gives the corresponding Hermite constants gamma_n (Gruber and Lekkerkerker 1987, p. 518; Hilbert and Cohn-Vossen 1999, p. 47; Finch) and relevant literature citations.

ndelta_n(gamma_n)^nreference
21/6pisqrt(3)4/3Kepler 1611, 1619; Lagrange 1773
31/6pisqrt(2)2Kepler 1611, 1619; Gauss 1840
41/(16)pi^24Korkin and Zolotarev 1877
51/(30)pi^2sqrt(2)8Korkin and Zolotarev 1877
61/(144)pi^3sqrt(3)(64)/3Blichfeldt 1934, Barnes 1957, Vetčinkin 1980
71/(105)pi^364Blichfeldt 1934, Watson 1966, Vetčinkin 1980
81/(384)pi^4256Blichfeldt 1934, Watson 1966, Vetčinkin 1980

The packing densities Delta_n of the densest known non-lattice packings of hyperspheres in dimensions up to 10 are given by Conway and Sloane (1995). Prior to 2016, no proofs that any packing in dimensions greater than 3 was optimal were know (cf. Sloane 1998). However, in 2016, Maryna Viazovska announced a proof that the E_8 lattice provides the optimal packing in eight-dimensional space (Knudson 2016, Morgan 2016). Very shortly thereafter, Viazovska and collaborators announced a similar proof that the Leech lattice is optimal in 24 dimensions (Grossman 2016, Klarreich 2016).

CircleSpherePacking

The largest number of unit circles which can touch a given unit circle is six. For spheres, the maximum number is 12. Newton considered this question long before a proof was published in 1874. The maximum number of hyperspheres that can touch another in n dimensions is the so-called kissing number.

The following example illustrates the sometimes counterintuitive properties of hypersphere packings. Draw unit n-spheres in an n-dimensional space centered at all +/-1 coordinates. Now place an additional hypersphere at the origin tangent to the other hyperspheres. For values of n between 2 and 8, the central hypersphere is contained inside the hypercube with polytope vertices at the centers of the other spheres. However, for n=9, the central hypersphere just touches the hypercube of centers, and for n>9, the central hypersphere is partially outside the hypercube.

This fact can be demonstrated by finding the distance from the origin to the center of one of the n hyperspheres, which is given by

 sqrt((+/-1)^2+...+(+/-1)^2)_()_(n)=sqrt(n).

The radius of the central sphere is therefore sqrt(n)-1. Now, the distance from the origin to the center of a facet bounding the hypercube is always 1 (one hypersphere radius), so the center hypersphere is tangent to the hypercube when sqrt(n)-1=1, or n=4, and partially outside it for n>4.


See also

Circle Packing, Ellipsoid Packing, Hermite Constants, Kepler Conjecture, Kissing Number, Leech Lattice, Peg, Sphere Packing

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References

Barnes, E. S. "The Complete Enumeration of Extreme Senary Forms." Philos. Trans. Roy. Soc. London A 249, 461-506, 1957.Blichfeldt, H. F. "The Minimum Value of Positive Quadratic Forms in Six, Seven, and Eight Variables." Math. Z. 39, 1-15, 1934.Conway, J. H. and Sloane, N. J. A. Sphere Packings, Lattices, and Groups, 2nd ed. New York: Springer-Verlag, 1993.Conway, J. H. and Sloane, N. J. A. "What Are All the Best Sphere Packings in Low Dimensions?" Disc. Comput. Geom. 13, 383-403, 1995.Finch, S. R. "Hermite's Constants." §2.7 in Mathematical Constants. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, pp. 506-508, 2003.Gardner, M. Martin Gardner's New Mathematical Diversions from Scientific American. New York: Simon and Schuster, pp. 89-90, 1966.Gauss, C. F. "Recursion der 'Untersuchungen über die Eigenschaften der positiven ternären quadratischen Formen von Ludwig August Seeber, Dr. der Philosophie, ordentl. Professor an der Universität in Freiburg, 1831, 248 S. in 4." J. reine angew. Math. 20, 312-320, 1840.Grossman, L. "New Maths Proof Shows How to Stack Oranges in 24 Dimensions." Daily News, New Scientist, March 28, 2016.Gruber, P. M. and Lekkerkerker, C. G. Geometry of Numbers. Amsterdam, Netherlands: North-Holland, 1987.Hilbert, D. and Cohn-Vossen, S. Geometry and the Imagination. New York: Chelsea, p. 47, 1999.Kepler, J. "Strena seu de nive sexangula." Frankfurt, Germany: Tampach, 1611. Reprinted in Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 4 (Ed. M. Caspar and F. Hammer). Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1966.Kepler, J. Harmonice Mundi, Libri V. Linz, Austria: Kugellagerungen, 1619. Reprinted in Gesammelte Werke, Vol. 6 (Ed. M. Caspar). Munich, Germany: Weltharmonik, 1939.Klarreich, E. "Sphere Packing Solved in Higher Dimensions." Quanta Magazine, March 30, 2016.Knudson, K. "Stacking Cannonballs in 8 Dimensions." Forbes, March 29, 2016.Korkin, A. and Zolotarev, G. "Sur les formes quadratiques positives." Math. Ann. 11, 242-292, 1877.Lagrange, J.-L. "Recherches d'arithmétique." Nouv. Mém. Acad. Roy. Soc. Belles Lettres (Berlin), pp. 265-312, 1773. Reprinted in Oeuvres, Vol. 3, pp. 693-758.Morgan, F. "Sphere Packing in Dimension 8." The Huffington Post, March 21, 2016.Schnell, U. and Wills, J. M. "Densest Packings of More than Three d-Spheres are Nonplanar." Disc. Comput. Geom. 24, 539-549, 2000.Sloane, N. J. A. "Kepler's Conjecture Confirmed." Nature 395, 435-436, 1998.Vetčinkin, N. M. "Uniqueness of Classes of Positive Quadratic Forms on Which Values of the Hermite Constants are Attained for 6<=n<=8." Trudy Mat. Inst. Steklov 148, 65-76, 1978. English translation in Proc. Steklov Inst. Math. 148, 63-74, 1980.Watson, G. L. "On the Minimum of a Positive Quadratic Form in n (<=8) Variables. Verification of Blichfeldt's Calculation." Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. 62, 719, 1966.

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Hypersphere Packing

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Hypersphere Packing." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/HyperspherePacking.html

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