Optimal arrangements in packing congruent balls in a spherical container (Q878077): Difference between revisions

The paper under review considers the following packing problem: Given a positive integer \(n\), find the minimum radius \(\rho_d(n)\) of a spherical container in \(R^d\;(d\geq 2)\) that can hold \(n\) unit balls, and determine all possible configurations of the set of the centers of the \(n\) balls (up to an isometry). Davenport and Hajos (1951), and, independently, \textit{R. A. Rankin} [Proc. Glasg. Math. Assoc. 2, 139--144 (1955; Zbl 0065.15601)], proved that if \(F\) is a set of \(d+2\) points in the unit ball in \(R^d\), then two of the points in \(F\) are at a distance of at most \(\sqrt{2}\) from each other. Rankin proved also that if \(F\) consists of \(2d\) points in the ball such that the distance between any two of them is at least \(\sqrt{2}\), then their configuration is unique up to an isometry, namely the points must be the vertices of a regular \(d\)-dimensional crosspolytope inscribed in the ball. However, if \(d+2 \leq n \leq 2d -1\), then the optimal arrangements of \(n\) points (i.e. those that maximize the distance between them) are not unique. The authors generalize these previous results by describing all possible optimal configurations, unique or not, of \(n=d+2, d+3, \ldots, 2d \) points.