Spiral hexagonal circle packings in the plane (Q1319974)

Starting with the regular hexagonal circle packing in the plane (i.e., each circle is surrounded by six congruent copies), the authors investigate hexagonal circle packings whose elements have different radii. By an elegant algorithmical approach, they generate spiral patterns from these packings. Using Kleinian group and usual covering theory, they study a complex parametrization of all possible such patterns and characterize the cases where the circles have mutually disjoint interiors. It is proved that such ``coherent'' circle spirals (together with the regular ``penny packing'') are the hexagonal circle packings in this sense.