Enumerating rigid sphere packings

DOI10.1137/140982337MaRDI QIDQ2805266zbMATH OpenOpenAlexFDO

Authors Miranda Holmes-Cerfon

Publication date 10 May 2016

Published in SIAM Review (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/1407.3285

zbMATH Keywords

computational aspects in algebraic geometrymechanismsnanoparticlesnanostructuresrigidity and flexibility of structuresrobots

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Computational aspects in algebraic geometry (14Q99) Rigidity and flexibility of structures (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C25) Kinematics of mechanisms and robots (70B15) Statistical mechanics of nanostructures and nanoparticles (82D80) Research exposition (monographs, survey articles) pertaining to mathematics education (97-02)

Abstract: Packing problems, which ask how to arrange a collection of objects in space to meet certain criteria, are important in a great many physical and biological systems, where geometrical arrangements at small scales control behaviour at larger ones. In many systems there is no single, optimal packing that dominates, but rather one must understand the entire set of possible packings. As a step in this direction we enumerate rigid clusters of identical hard spheres for $nleq14$, and clusters with the maximum number of contacts for $nleq19$. A rigid cluster is one that cannot be continuously deformed while maintaining all contacts. This is a nonlinear notion that arises naturally because such clusters are the metastable states when the spheres interact with a short-range potential, as is the case in many nano- or micro-scale systems. We expect these lists are nearly complete, except for a small number of highly singular clusters (linearly floppy but nonlinearly rigid.) The data contains some major geometrical surprises, such as the prevalence of hypostatic clusters: those with less than the $3n-6$ contacts generically necessary for rigidity. We discuss these and several other unusual clusters, whose geometries may shed insight into physical mechanisms, pose mathematical and computational problems, or bring inspiration for designing new materials.

Review text

The problem of sphere packings has a long and rich history in mathematics. Here, a short review of associated papers is given first (there are 60 references). Then the exact mathematical definition of the problem and a rigidity of the packing are given. The numerical algorithms used are described and more important results are listed and compared.

Recommendations

• Deriving finite sphere packings
• The properties of mutual arrangements of the sphere in the space
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4046538
• Sphere packings. I
• The sphere packing problem

Cites work

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Cited in

(16)

• The properties of mutual arrangements of the sphere in the space
• Enumeration of irreducible contact graphs on the sphere
• On contact graphs of totally separable domains
• Calculating the symmetry number of flexible sphere clusters
• Rigidity of packings
• Defects and frustration in the packing of soft balls
• Enumerating rigid sphere packings
• Deriving finite sphere packings
• A formula for the number of closest packings of equal spheres having a given repeat period
• scientific article; zbMATH DE number 4046538 (Why is no real title available?)
• A linear programming algorithm to test for jamming in hard-sphere packings
• On the global minimum of the classical potential energy for clusters bound by many-body forces
• Rigidity of spherical codes
• Bell polynomials and modified Bessel functions of half-integral order
• On the uniqueness of collections of pennies and marbles
• Single-cell 3D genome reconstruction in the haploid setting using rigidity theory

Describes a project that uses

Uses Software

• Bertini
• kepler98

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