Some relations between roots, holes, and pillars (Q1095155)

A lattice L is an additive subgroup of \(R^ n\) which is generated by a basis (of \(R^ n)\). It is integral if the inner product of any two vectors in L is an integer and is even if, in addition, all vectors have even length. A hole in L is a vector x in \(R^ n\) such that the distance from x to a vector in L is as large as possible. [A convenient reference for these topics is: \textit{J. H. Conway} and \textit{N. J. A. Sloane}, Sphere packings, lattices and groups (1988)]. The paper under review provides some observations concerning work by Conway and Sloane concerning holes in the Leech lattice and work of Lemmens and Seidel on large sets of equiangular lines in \(R^ n\) (i.e., sets of lines with the property that the angle between any pair of lines is the same). The author hopes that these observations may prove useful in classifying the regular 2-graphs with smallest eigenvalue -5, and in classifying integral lattices generated by their vectors with norm 4.