Maximum density space packing with parallel strings of spheres (Q757845)

A string is an infinite sequence of unit spheres, each touching two others, with centers on a line. The authors prove that if a packing with unit spheres in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3\) is the union of translates of a string then the density of the packing is \(\leq \pi /\sqrt{18}\), with equality occuring in the well-known densest lattice packing. This pleasing result (conjectured independently by Böröczky and Woods) bridges some of the gap towards the long-standing conjecture: \(\pi\) /\(\sqrt{18}\) is the maximum density among all unit-sphere packings in \({\mathbb{R}}^ 3\). The paper concludes with several open problems.