Constructive high-dimensional sphere packings (Q1099210)

The results of this paper were announced in Russ. Math. Surv. 40, No.2, 219-220 (1985); translation from Usp. Mat. Nauk 40, No.2(242), 185-186 (1985; Zbl 0578.10037).] New constructive asymptotic existence bounds for the density of (lattice and nonlattice) sphere packings in Euclidean spaces are established. The main tools are the following: a general principle of constructing dense sphere packings from error-correcting codes, constructions of algebraic- geometric codes going beyond the Gilbert-Varshamov bound (in particular codes arising from modular curves), and constructions of dense lattices arising from infinite towers of unramified extensions of algebraic number fields. The paper contains a host of intriguing ideas and is a remarkable example for the successful cross-fertilization between several mathematical areas.