Dense packings with nonparallel cylinders

DOI10.4171/EM/387zbMATH Open1433.52023arXiv1809.10721OpenAlexW2959162681WikidataQ127543894 ScholiaQ127543894MaRDI QIDQ2337366FDOQ2337366

Dan Ismailescu, Piotr Laskawiec

Publication date: 19 November 2019

Published in: Elemente der Mathematik (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: A emph{cylinder packing} is a family of congruent infinite circular cylinders with mutually disjoint interiors in $3$-dimensional Euclidean space. The emph{local density} of a cylinder packing is the ratio between the volume occupied by the cylinders within a given sphere and the volume of the entire sphere. The emph{global density} of the cylinder packing is obtained by letting the radius of the sphere approach infinity. It is known that the greatest global density is obtained when all cylinders are parallel to each other and each cylinder is surrounded by exactly six others. In this case, the global density of the cylinder packing equals $pi/sqrt12=0.90689ldots$. The question is how large a density can a cylinder packing have if one imposes the restriction that emph{no two cylinders are parallel}. In this paper we prove two results. First, we show that there exist cylinder packings with no two cylinders parallel to each other, whose local density is arbitrarily close to the local density of a packing with parallel cylinders. Second, we construct a cylinder packing with no two cylinders parallel to each other whose global density is $1/2$. This improves the results of K. Kuperberg, C. Graf and P. Paukowisch.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1809.10721

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

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

Cites Work

• Maximum density packing with congruent circular cylinders with pairwise askew axes
• Maximum density space packing with congruent circular cylinders of infinite length
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• Title not available (Why is that?)
• A nonparallel cylinder packing with positive density

Cited In (2)

• On the densest packing of polycylinders in any dimension
• Non-uniform packings

Uses Software

• kepler98

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