Packing spheres in high dimensions with moderate computational effort.

Elser, Veit · Phys Rev E · 2023

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

We generate nonlattice 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, that the exponential decay rate of the density can be improved relative to Minkowski's longstanding 1/2.