Contact numbers for congruent sphere packings in Euclidean 3-space (Q452008)

Let \(C(n)\) denote the largest possible number of touching pairs in a packing of \(n\) unit balls in \(3\)-dimensional Euclidean space. The author proves that \[ 6n - 486^{2/3}\, n^{2/3} < C(n) < 6n - 0.695 n^{2/3} \] for all \(n\) of the form \(n=k(2 k^2+1)/3\) with \(k\geq 2\). He also provides similar estimates in the case when there are additional restrictions on the centers of balls in a packing.