The Coulomb energy of spherical designs on \(S^{2}\) (Q930348)

For any positive integer \(n, a\) spherical \(n\)-design is a finite set of points \(X\) on \(S^2 \subset \mathbb R^3\) that gives an equal numerical integration rule on \(S^2\) which is exact for spherical polymonials of degree less than or equal to \(n\). A sequence \(\Xi\) of \(m\)-point spherical \(n\)-designs \(X\) on \(S^2\) is said to be well separated if there exists a constant \(\lambda > 0\) such that, for each \(m\)-point spherical \(n\)-design \(X \in \Xi\), the minimal spherical distance between the points is bounded from below by \({\lambda}/{{\sqrt m}}\). In this paper the authors give upper bounds for the Coulomb energy of a sequence of well separated spherical \(n\)-designs.