The defect of an admissible octahedron in a lattice (Q1916658)

Let \(\Lambda\) be a lattice in euclidean \(n\)-space \(\mathbb{R}^n\), let \(e_1, \dots, e_n \in \Lambda\) be linear independent vectors, and let \(f\) be the maximal number of vectors in a set \(\{e_{i_1}, \dots, e_{i_f}\}\), that may be complemented to a basis of \(\Lambda \). The difference \(n - f\) is called the defect, and the author discusses various properties (e.g. asymptotic) of the defect.