On Arrangements of Six, Seven, and Eight Spheres: Maximal Bonding of Monatomic Ionic Compounds

Abstract: Let

C (n)

be the solution to the contact number problem, i.e., the maximum number of touching pairs among any packing of

n

congruent spheres in

m a t h b b R^{3}

. We prove the long conjectured values of

C (6) = 12, C (7) = 15

, and

C (8) = 18

. The proof strategy generalizes under an extensive case analysis to

C (9) = 21, C (10) = 25, C (11) = 29, C (12) = 33

, and

C (13) = 36

. These results have great importance for condensed matter physics, materials science, crystallography, organic and physical chemistry of interfaces.

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