Optimal \(N\)-point configurations on the sphere: ``magic'' numbers and Smale's 7th problem (Q2254910)

\(N\)-point optimization problems appear in various fields of science, like biology, chemistry, physics and computer science. This paper deals with concavity properties of the map \(N \mapsto v_{s}(N)\), where \(v_s(N)\) is the minimal average standardized Riesz pair-energy for \(N\)-point configurations on the unit \(2\)-sphere \(S^2\subset \mathbb R^{3}\) (here, ``standardized'' Riesz pair-energy means \(V_s (r ) = s^{-1}( r^{-s} - 1)\), with \(s\in \mathbb R\), where \(r\) is the chordal distance between the points of the pair). Given the limited amount of knowledge about true minimizers, the authors study mostly the \(N\)-dependence of putatively minimal average standardized Riesz pair-energies \(v^{x}_s (N)\), obtained numerically in computer experiments. Empirical findings reveal that, for \(s=-1\), the minimal average standardized Riesz pair-energy could be a locally strictly concave function of \(N\), without any ``convex anomalies.'' However, for \(s\in\{0, 1, 2, 3\}\), it is observed that \(N \mapsto v^{x}_s(N)\) is not strictly concave. Various rigorous bounds are presented on the second discrete derivative \"{v}\(_s(N).\) The authors relate concavity to an asymptotic analysis of the large-\(N\) regime. For each studied \(s\)-value, the \(N\)-values at which the map \(N \mapsto v^{x}_{s}(N)\) is strictly convex are collected into a set \(C^{x}_{+}(s)\). An inspection of the empirical map \(s \mapsto C^{x}_{+}(s)\) suggests the conjecture that the actual map \(s \mapsto C_{+}(s)\) is set-theoretically monotonic increasing. The integers in the set \(C^{x}_{+}(0)\) are few and far between, forming a curious sequence of numbers, reminiscent of the ``magic numbers'' in nuclear physics. It is conjectured that these new ``magic numbers'' are associated with optimally symmetric optimal-log-energy \(N\)-point configurations on \(S^2.\) Finally, a list of interesting open problems is extracted from the empirical findings, and some rigorous first steps toward their solutions are presented. It is emphasized how concavity can assist in the solution to Smale's 7th problem, which asks for an efficient algorithm to find near-optimal \(N\)-point configurations on \(S^2\) and higher-dimensional spheres. Computer-experimental evidence suggests that the number of nonglobally minimizing configurations (modulo rotations on \(S^2\)) is growing exponentially with \(N.\) It would be nice to have a rigorous proof, together with a determination of the growth rate. An exponential growth rate of the number of locally minimizing configurations is reminiscent of ``the complexity of the energy landscape.'' However, not much is known about the Riesz-energy landscape for \(N\)-point configurations on \(S^2\). Perhaps, with the help of catalogs of non-globally minimizing configurations and their energies, it should be feasible to determine the experimental number counts of the local minimizers below a certain energy \(E\).