A formulation of the Kepler conjecture (Q734997)

This is the second paper in a series of six, which together contain the details of Hales' proof of the Kepler conjecture: the maximal density of a packing of unit balls in three space is given by \(\pi/\sqrt{18}\approx 0.74\), the density of the face-centered cubic lattice packing. The contents of this paper are described best by the following quotation from its introduction. ``The first section of the paper gives the top level structure of the proof of the Kepler conjecture. The next two sections describe the fundamental decompositions of space that are needed in the proof. The first decomposition, which is called the \(Q\)-system, is a collection of simplices that do not overlap. This decomposition was originally inspired by the Delaunay decomposition of the space. The other decomposition, which is called the \(V\)-cell decomposition, is closely related to the Voronoi decomposition of space. In the following section these two decompositions of space are combined into geometrical objects called \textit{decomposition stars}. The decomposition star is the fundamental object in the proof of the Kepler conjecture. The final section of this paper, which was coauthored with Samuel P. Ferguson, describes a particular nonlinear function on the set of all decomposition stars, called the scoring function. The Kepler conjecture reduces to an optimization problem involving this nonlinear function on the set of all decomposition stars. This is an optimization problem in a finite number of variables. The subsequent papers (Papers III--VI) solve that optimization problem.'' All six papers of the series have appeared in vol. 36 of \textit{Discrete and Computational Geometry} [No. 1, 5--20 (2006; Zbl 1186.52010); 21--69 (2006; this review); 71--110 (2006; Zbl 1186.52011); 111--166 (2006; Zbl 1186.52012); 167--204 (2006; Zbl 1186.52009); 205--265 (2006; Zbl 1186.52013)].