Sphere packings and lattice sphere packings

Mathieu Dutour Sikiric

Institut Rudjer Boskovic, Zagreb and Institute of Statistical Mathematics, Tokyo

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I. Introduction

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Norms, balls and spheres

On the vector space


, we dene the Euclidean norm



with is

         !  ! $ % 

The Euclidean distance on

 

A ball

of center and radius

 "

is dened by

 

with
#

"

The interior of
' 

is

with

The sphere
'

of center and radius

"

is dened as
! %

with

&

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Packings
A packing in is a set of balls of the same radius, whose interiors are non-overlapping.

For historical reasons, those packings are called sphere packings, instead of ball packings. We will consider only innite sphere packings.

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Density of packing
The density of a sphere packing space covered. It is dened by with
BA 9@ H GE F  )(  8 CD H 21 4 53 76 9@ F IE 8 A

is the fraction of
Q

The limit does not necessarily exist. We will always assume this limit exists.

4 P

)(

p.5/60

Density of packing
The density of a sphere packing space covered. It is dened by with
BA 9@ H GE F  )(  8 CD H 21 4 53 76 9@ F IE 8 A

is the fraction of
Q

The limit does not necessarily exist. We will always assume this limit exists.

4 P

)(

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Density of packing
The density of a sphere packing space covered. It is dened by with
BA 9@ H GE F  )(  8 CD H 21 4 53 76 9@ F IE 8 A

is the fraction of
Q

The limit does not necessarily exist. We will always assume this limit exists.

4 P

)(

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Packing problem
Denote by .

the highest density of sphere packings in

R

The packing problem in dimension is: Determine the value of . Describe packings of density .
0

In dimension , the problem is sometimes called Kepler problem. Removing one sphere in a packing does not change its density! A reasonable problem is to describe all periodic -dimensional packings having highest constant.
R S

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Lattice packings
A lattice
W XV T

is a subgroup of .
W V U

of the form

If is a lattice, the lattice packing is the packing dened by taking the maximal value of such that is a packing.
T  T   a Y  Y ` a

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Lattice packings
A lattice
W XV T

is a subgroup of .
W V U

of the form

If is a lattice, the lattice packing is the packing dened by taking the maximal value of such that is a packing.
T  T   a Y  Y ` a

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Lattice packings
A lattice
W XV T

is a subgroup of .
W V U

of the form

If is a lattice, the lattice packing is the packing dened by taking the maximal value of such that is a packing.
T  T   a Y  Y ` a

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Density of lattice packings

Take the lattice packing dened by a lattice :
T

(L)

The packing density has the expression

T  c b      g d e f T

with

i 3p2

W h r tus  

the volume of the unit ball volume of an unit cell. Denote by

0 y

and

x vw

the

 a

the highest density of lattice packings.

d e f T

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Known results
Dimension 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 24

Best lattice packing

Best packing

(Lagrange)

(Lagrange) ? ? ? ? ? ?

(Gauss)

(Hales & Ferguson)

(Korkine & Zolotarev) (Korkine & Zolotarev) (Blichfeldt) (Blichfeldt) (Blichfeldt)

We do not know if packing.

(Cohn & Kumar)

` 0 y R

for some , i.e. an example of

a sphere packing of higher density than any lattice sphere

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Plan of the presentation

We will present: Those results Methods of their proof Some conjectures Some new techniques Subjects not covered: Finite packings Asymptotic theory as the dimension goes to Description of remarkable lattices Random packing. ,
dT g i h d

, ...

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II. Voronoi domain technique

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Voronoi domain
Suppose dene
k  W "

is a locally nite set in

W W $

, for any

,
% %

# j 

for all

also known as Nearest neighbor region, Brillouin zone, Wigner Seitz cell. They form a face to face tiling of

"

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Results
Take a subset in and assume that for every , , we have . Then one denes the sphere packings with balls of radius and center in , the Voronoi domain region and gets for any , the inclusion .
l l j m on j l #    h g  j k    g p q k j #  

Denote by the smallest value of such that for every , one has sphere packing with balls .
Y    k n     t t s r Y r s

One has

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Dimension
It is proved that the Voronoi cell of minimal volume in a packing by sphere of radius is regular hexagon. So, and .
v u 0 Y $ Y g

Regular hexagon realizes a face-to-face packing of so in fact (Lagrange)

v u 0 Y

Hexagonal packing is the unique periodic packing of highest density.

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Voronoi polytope in dimension

The Voronoi region of minimal volume is the Dodecahedron (Thomas Hales & Sean McLaughlin, proved by computer computations) There is no set in Dodecahedron. So,
j 0 & w w Y w

, whose Voronoi region are

Conguration of spheres with minimal Voronoi

Conguration of spheres with maximal density

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Sphere packing in dimension

Hales & Ferguson proved that there is no packing of density higher than the one by lattice (cannon ball packing). The method is computer based, extremely long, extraordinarily complicated, unchecked. It uses a decomposition of the space intermediate between Voronoi and Delaunay decomposition. It uses global optimization, branch & bound and interval arithmetic.
w x

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Highest density packings in dimension

Packings with highest density in dimension by lamination on the hexagonal packing: are formed
S

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Highest density packings in dimension

Packings with highest density in dimension by lamination on the hexagonal packing: are formed
S

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Highest density packings in dimension

Packings with highest density in dimension by lamination on the hexagonal packing: are formed
S

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Highest density packings in dimension

Packings with highest density in dimension by lamination on the hexagonal packing: are formed
S

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Highest density packings in dimension

Packings with highest density in dimension by lamination on the hexagonal packing: are formed
S

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Highest density packings in dimension

Packings with highest density in dimension by lamination on the hexagonal packing: are formed
S

The above Cannon ball packing is when the choice of layer is uniform.

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Other dimensions
Conjecture It seems likely that , and
y z0 i 0 yY iY 0 y y Y

And that the equality is realized only by the Voronoi domain of , and lattice
y { i h

This would prove that they are best packings in dimension , and
| }

Problem Find Voronoi cell of small volume in dimension to .

~ h |

dT

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III. Lattices and Gram matrices

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Gram matrix and lattices

Denote by the vector space of real symmetric matrices and the convex cone of real symmetric matrices. positive denite
' R w ' R   R

Take a lattice Gram matrix

   g W a

and associate to it the .

w # '

W XV

W V

 W   wv 8 

Example: take the hexagonal lattice generated by and

h 8 g h

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Isometric lattices
Take a lattice
W  W   W  

with and write the matrix

W V

W XV

W   

. . .

...

. . .
W

and If If (i.e.

W   

, then there exists

such that

'

, then with corresponds to an isometry of ).

Also if is a lattice of isometry of , then

T

with basis .
A 8H

and

an

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Arithmetic minimum
The arithmetic minimum of
 x  R

is
x

x ' i 3p2 r t x vw w # ' w #

The minimal vector set of

  " x R #

is
 R x  %

Both and can be computed using some programs (for example sv by Vallentin)
x R h R

The matrix
  x R

has
   g  g   g %

"

 g

 a 

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Reexpression of previous denitions

Take a lattice

. If

,
V

W XV

W V

with

T j

we associate to it the column vector

. . .

We get

and
g  

and

d e f T

d e f

R h  8

For

and

de f

 S R g h h

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Changing basis
r l

If

and
T

are two basis of a lattice . This implies

l   "

then

with

If , they are called arithmetically equivalent if there is at least one such that
x  w  # '  # x T  V 

Lattices up to isometric equivalence correspond to up to arithmetic equivalence.

In practice, Plesken wrote a program isom for testing arithmetic equivalence.

'

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W  g a 
v2 v1

8 W

One has

and

g W  l W   g g 8 a  g h  
v 2

g  wv W  Wh W

and
8  l W

An example

Take the hexagonal lattice and two basis in it.

and

wv

and
W
v 1

l   g a 
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Hermite constant
The Hermite function is dened on
x  R 

as

d e f

x

The Hermite constant is:

 r 3 x 

The density of the lattice packing associated to

 c x  h

x

'

is

Finding lattice packings with highest packing density is the same as maximizing the Hermite function.

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Extreme lattices
The function is continuous on . The expression of the lattice packing problem in form of a matrix problem allows to use analytical tools. A form is extreme if the Hermite function attains a local maximum at .
x w # ' x w '

If one determines all the extreme lattices, then by computing the value of for all of them, one would get the absolute maximum at .
x

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IV. Lattice packings, perfect lattices and Voronoi algorithm

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Perfect lattices
A matrix equation
 #

is perfect (Korkine & Zolotarev) if the

x  

x ' w #

and .
x

for all

'

implies

W 

A lattice is perfect if it has a basis being perfect.

# V

with

R W  8

 e

Since , we have a linear system with integral coefcient so perfect matrices are rational.
A   ' 

and shortest vector comes into pairs . So one has .

 n  x R R

W "

extreme

W

perfect. (Korkine & Zolotarev)

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A perfect lattice
h g

corresponds to the lattice:

v2

v1

If

satises to
   "  g a 

for

x h %

 

R  a g  g  h

, then:

and
x

 h

which implies

is perfect.

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A non-perfect lattice
g a     

has

 a

 g

See below two lattices with

   '  # R w

associated to matrices :
 x R 

v2

v1

"

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A non-perfect lattice
g a     

has

 a

 g

See below two lattices with

   '  # R w
v2

associated to matrices :
 x R 

v1

"

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Perfect domains
If is a perfect matrix then the perfect domain is
x  " x ' w #

with

perfect implies that

w '

is full-dimensional in

q n

q W

Thm. (Voronoi): Perfect domains form a face-to-face tesselation of . Thm. (Voronoi): In a xed dimension , there exist a nite number of perfect matrices ,. . . , such that for every perfect matrix , there exists and such that
x R x x w # ' x   T V x g $ # ! $ w # '

'

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Enumeration of Perfect lattices

dim. Nr. of perfect lattices Absolute maximum of 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 (Lagrange) 1 (Gauss) 2 (Korkine & Zolotareff) 3 (Korkine & Zolotareff) 7 (Barnes) 33 (Jaquet) 10916 (Dutour, Schrmann & Vallentin)
}

realized by

We will explain Voronoi algorithm that allows the classication up to dimension (but for dimension up to Korkine-Zolotarev methods are sufcient).

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The partition of

if and only if
v

and

'

&

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The partition of
We cut by the plane representation.
g

and get a circle

v

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The partition of
  

The rank matrices . boundary of

g w '
2,1

with
1,1

lie on the

3,2

2,3 1,2

3,1

1,0

1,3

0,1

3,1

1,3

2,1 3,2 1,1 2,3

1,2

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The partition of
w '   {  

partition: every triangle corresponds to a perfect domain with arithmetically equivalent to

1,1 3,2 2,1 2,3 1,2

x
3,1 1,3 1,0 0,1 3,1 1,3 2,1 3,2 1,1 2,3 1,2

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Voronoi algorithm
Find a perfect matrix, insert it to the list as undone. Iterate For every undone perfect matrix, compute the perfect domain and then its facets. For every facet realize the ipping, i.e. compute the adjacent perfect domain (and perfect lattice). If the perfect lattice is new, then we insert it into the list of perfect lattices as undone. Finish when all perfect domains have been treated.

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v2

v1

d  

d g a  g a   

x  d d "  g   g  g x %   a   g  a    

Flipping on a facet

 g  a  g   g    a   g g   g 

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v2

v1

d g a  g a   

  " d   a g  %  x  g a    

Flipping on a facet

  a  g    a  g 

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v2

v1

d g a  g a   

x  d  g   a x g  x % a    " 

Flipping on a facet

  a  g    a  g 

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v2

v1

d d   d d  R d  d  g   g  a g  a  %  g x
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x 

Flipping on a facet
"   

 g  a  g g g a        g  a  g g g a   

1,0

1,1 0,1

 g  g  g a

{ x   x    g a   a g  

"

facets. with

 x  h    g g  % g 

x h

Adjacency of perfect domains

g

has three

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1,0

2,1

1,1 0,1

 g  g  g a

 x

{   

{  x   h  g     g a  

" R    S 

 h S

Adjacency of perfect domains

and share a facet. with

  g g  % 

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1,0

1,1 1,2 0,1

 g a g h

 x

{   

{  x   g  h     a g  

" R h   S 

 S 

Adjacency of perfect domains

and share a facet. with

  g g  % 

p.37/60

Adjacency of perfect domains

h  w g
1,1

h 

 a

 g

 g

1,0

0,1

and share a facet. with

x

1,1

This completes the enumeration of perfect form in dimension : matrices arithmetically equivalent to
h

"

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V. Korkine Zolotarev method

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Korkine Zolotarev reduction



A matrix is called be expressed as

x w ' #    x Y 

-reduced if

can

 x

with the following properties:

a $ Y $

is the minimum of the matrix . , then the above is

x

If we put

-reduced.

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Properties
Every matrix -reduced one.
x #

is arithmetically equivalent to a

Due to the invariance of by arithmetic equivalence, it sufces to solve the packing problem for -reduced matrices. is the minimum of . is the determinant of .
x x x  x  x

The Hermite constant is expressed as

3  x  x x

'

-reduced

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a  a $ $ a  n Y y w x Y n x g n x n  Y x Y  g   x x e    x Y n g 

So,
wv x g x x $ S | x   y x x  x  

We have

This implies

. implies and
n x w  Y  x g x  x
p.41/60

implies:
x

In dimension
 x

Best lattice packing

Conjecture best lattice packing dim. Symbol Name 9 Laminated lattice of dim. 10 Coxeter Todd lattice of dim. 11 Laminated lattice of dim. 12 Coxeter Todd lattice of dim. 16 Barnes-Wall lattice
w l  g h g g a

It is mysterious that there are so many beautiful lattices that are most likely of highest density but that we have no proof of their optimality. Perhaps global optimization using Korkine-Zolotarev method can help?

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VI. Elkies-Cohn method

p.43/60

Fourier transform
If is an integrable function over
 f  d 

, then

If

is a lattice, then the dual lattice is

y " 

u 

for all

Poisson summation formula

g  W s d e f T r r s d u t  f  q

p.44/60

Fundamental theorem
A function is admissible if for some
 g t t

and .
g

 

are

0 n `

Suppose
   f n

for all

is admissible and with .

Q

m 

for all then the density of sphere packings (not only lattice sphere packings) is bounded from above by
a f    a  h a c  

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Partial proof of theorem

Take a lattice

and suppose that

3i 2

r us t

Poisson formula and hypothesis implies:

     

by
n s a

Aw U H s

if by Poisson formula
a $ g

As a consequence
T  c   b c c   a   0 T $  a  d e f T d e f T h 

by

 

The above proof extends to general packings.

on

vw

p.46/60

Finding good functions

Cohn, Elkies & Kumar found functions polynomials of degree such that
} a a      x 0 g $

using

i h

at

dT

Conjecture There exist some functions realize

    

at

at

y  y

that

g g

0   i 0 dT d

 

and

This would imply that , and unique best packings in dimension ,

x i h h

lattice are the and .

h |

dT

i h

p.47/60

Application to lattice
The lattices , and are extreme lattices (local maximum of packing density)
x i h dT d g

Cohn & Kumar were able to prove that if a lattice has a higher density than , and , then it is not too far from those lattices.
x i h

Using the fact that an extreme matrix is a local maximum of the packing density and careful analysis, they were able to prove that is best lattice packing in dimension Leech is best lattice packing in dimension
i h } h |

dT

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VII. Symmetry method

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Symmetry of lattices
A symmetry of a lattice preserving such that
a 8

is an isometry .
 T T 

of

If one selects a basis of and consider the Gram , then a corresponds to a matrix matrix such that .
r #

 V

If

, then the symmetry group

  "   x x x f # x T V %

is nite.

'

p.50/60

Hexagonal symmetries
An orthogonal symmetry :
x

a
v2

g
v1

s(x)

A rotation

of angle :
r(x)

w u

a
v2 v1

g
x

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Matrix integral groups

We want to consider lattices having a xed symmetry group. We use the Gram matrix formalism.


If

is a nite subgroup of
  " x )( ' #

, denote by for all

t x # %

x   T V  V  R

Two subgroups exist

 # T

, of such that

are conjugate if there

Thm.(Zassenhaus): In dimension , there is a nite (up to conjugacy). number of subgroups of They are classied up to dimension .
T

p.52/60

Two dimensional example

Take the group
g a

formed by the
a g

integral matrices
g

and

One has

"

with

)(

y 

"

with

)(

'

 a

p.53/60

-perfect matrices


If is a nite subgroup of , we want to describe the packing density of Gram matrices corresponding to elements in .
 )( 

A matrix
)(  #

is

-perfect if:
 

)(

and .


for all

implies

A matrix maximum in
x

)(

is -extreme if it is a local of .

-extreme

)(

-perfect.

x

p.54/60

-perfect domains
If is -perfect then: Partition into with for some orbit). Dene
  x R R r x  

x

is an

Dene the

-perfect domain by
x  "

with

nb

Thm. (Berg, Martinet & Sigrist): -perfect domains realize a polyhedral subdivision of .
  )(

We can enumerate all of Voronoi algorithm.

-perfect matrices with analogs

'

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VIII. Periodic structures

p.56/60

Motivation
A packing of is called periodic if there is a lattice such that the set of centers of is of the form
) ) 4 T

with

Lattices correspond to the case

) 0

If is a packing of density , then for any , one can nd a periodic packings of density . Hence, periodic packings approximate packings.
n 0 "  `

.
a

We hope that by cleverly choosing , we would be able to nd packings of higher density than any lattice packings, i.e. that . Possible dimensions are , , and .
   0 ` | ~ 0 y  4

p.57/60

Matrix setting
We want to vary the lattice, while keeping the same structure of the periodic structure.

In algebraic terms we select some vector consider the set

4 j V

and

 a

x

with the norm .

x w # '

If one authorizes some variation in , then the setting becomes non-linear and almost impossible to compute.

with

p.58/60

Perfection


Denote by , the shortest norm of the set is smallest norm between any two elements of .
R 4%  x

"

To , one associates the set such that

$ W  R 

of vectors
x 

A matrix
 ' #

is called


'

-perfect if the equation

 

and


for all

# j W #

implies

One has analog of perfect domain, ipping and so on in that context.

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THANK YOU

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