Towards a proof of the 24-cell conjecture (Q722369)

This is a survey paper devoted to the classical problems related to sphere packings in dimension 4. The sphere packing problem asks for the densest packing in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) with unit balls. Consider the Voronoi decomposition of any given packing \(P\) of unit spheres in \(\mathbb{R}^4\). The 24-cell conjecture states that the minimal volume of any cell in the Voronoi decomposition of \(P\) is at least as large as the volume of a regular 24-cell circumscribed to a unit sphere. The maximum possible number of non-overlapping unit spheres that can touch a unit sphere in the \(n\)-dimensional space is called the kissing number. In dimension 4, the uniqueness of maximum kissing arrangement is conjectured. In the paper under review, the author searches for reasonable approaches for solution to these two problems. Also, some related problems in dimension 4 are considered. Some ideas and preliminary findings are presented in the paper. The vast list of references embraces 102 titles.