Study of the Kepler's conjecture: the problem of the closest packing (Q2430657)

Kepler's conjecture says that the densest packing of the \(3\)-space with unit spheres is the face-centered cubic packing, having density \(\pi/\sqrt{18}\). In [Ann. Math. (2) 162, No. 3, 1065--1185 (2005; Zbl 1096.52010)], \textit{T. Hales} gave a proof of it which strongly relies on computers, by reducing the problem to an extremely complex optimization problem in which only finitely many spheres are involved. In this paper the author proposes a different and simpler method of reducing Kepler's conjecture to a problem with a finite number of parameters. This reduction is developed in the first and second parts of the paper by the usual approach of constructing a domain for each sphere of an arbitrary packing, such that (A) the associated domains are pairwise disjoint, (B) each one lies in the immediate vicinity of its corresponding sphere, and (C) the volume of each domain is larger than a suitable constant. In the third part it is shown that the latter finite problem can be solved by a numerical verification by means of a finite number of computations.