Bounds for local density of sphere packings and the Kepler conjecture

DOI10.1007/S00454-001-0060-9MaRDI QIDQ1597663zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors Jeffrey C. Lagarias

Publication date 30 May 2002

Published in Discrete \& Computational Geometry (Search for Journal in Brave)

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/math/0008151

zbMATH Keywords

Hales-FergusonKepler conjecturesphere packing

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Packing and covering in (n) dimensions (aspects of discrete geometry) (52C17)

Abstract: This paper describes the local density inequality approach to getting upper bounds for sphere packing densities in R^n. This approach was first suggested by L. Fejes-Toth in 1956 to prove the Kepler conjecture that the densest sphere packing in R^3 is the "cannonball packing". The approaches of L. Fejes-Toth, W.-Y. Hsiang, and T. Hales to the Kepler conjecture are each based on (different) local density inequalities. Recently T. Hales and S. P. Ferguson have presented extensive details carrying out a modified version of the otrignal Hales approach to prove the Kepler conjecture. We describe the particular local density inequality undelying the Hales and Ferguson approach and sketch some features of their proof.

Review text

Except for this opening sentence and the last sentence this review consists of a subset of the introduction. The Kepler conjecture, stated by Kepler in 1611, asserts: Any packing of unit spheres in \(\mathbb{R}^3\) has upper packing density \(\pi/18\) (the density of the face-centered cubic lattice). In recent years T. C. Hales has developed an approach for proving this based on finding a local density inequality that gives a (sharp) upper bound on the density. In 1998 he announced a proof, completed with the help of S. P. Ferguson. The proof is computer intensive, and involves checking over 5000 subproblems. It involves several new ideas which are indicated in Sections 4 and 5. The objects of this paper are: (i) To formulate local density inequalities for sphere packings in arbitrary dimension \(\mathbb{R}^n\), in sufficient generality to include the known candidates for optimal local inequalities in \(\mathbb{R}^3\). (ii) To review the history of local density inequalities for three-dimensional sphere packing and the Kepler conjecture. (iii) To give a precise statement of the local density inequality considered in the Hales-Ferguson approach. (iv) To outline some features of the Hales-Ferguson proof. The author succeeds admirably in his objectives.

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