Improving dense packings of equal disks in a square (Q1583617)

The problem of maximizing the size of \(n\) nonoverlapping equal disks in a unit square is considered (this problem is equivalent to maximizing the minimum pairwise distance between \(n\) points in a unit square), and a new heuristic for finding good such packings is presented. This heuristic involves the billiards algorithm by \textit{B. D. Lubachevsky} [J. Comput. Phys. 94, No. 2, 255-283 (1991; Zbl 0716.68094)]. Computational experiments show that the new heuristic is more effective than the billiards algorithm alone. Record-breaking packings are obtained for \(n=32,37,48,50\).