We introduce and study certain notions which might serve as substitutes for maximum density packings and minimum density coverings. A body is a compact connected set which is the closure of its interior. A packing $\cal P$ with congruent replicas of a body $K$ is $n$-saturated if no $n-1$ members of it can be replaced with $n$ replicas of $K$, and it is completely saturated if it is $n$-saturated for each $n\ge 1$. Similarly, a covering $\cal C$ with congruent replicas of a body $K$ is $n$-reduced if no $n$ members of it can be replaced by $n-1$ replicas of $K$ without uncovering a portion of the space, and it is completely reduced if it is $n$-reduced for each $n\ge 1$. We prove that every body $K$ in $d$-dimensional Euclidean or hyperbolic space admits both an $n$-saturated packing and an $n$-reduced covering with replicas of $K$. Under some assumptions on $K\subset \mathbb{E}^d$ (somewhat weaker than convexity), we prove the existence of completely saturated packings and completely reduced coverings, but in general, the problem of existence of completely saturated packings and completely reduced coverings remains unsolved. Also, we investigate some problems related to the the densities of $n$-saturated packings and $n$-reduced coverings. Among other things, we prove that there exists an upper bound for the density of a $d+2$-reduced covering of $\mathbb{E}^d$ with congruent balls, and we produce some density bounds for the $n$-saturated packings and $n$-reduced coverings of the plane with congruent circles.
In this paper we study the problem of hyperball (hypersphere) packings in $3$-dimensional hyperbolic space. We introduce a new definition of the non-compact saturated ball packings and describe to each saturated hyperball packing, a new procedure to get a decomposition of 3-dimensional hyperbolic space $\HYP$ into truncated tetrahedra. Therefore, in order to get a density upper bound for hyperball packings, it is sufficient to determine the density upper bound of hyperball packings in truncated simplices.
We show that a honeycomb circle packing in $\R^2$ with a linear gap defect cannot be completely saturated, no matter how narrow the gap is. The result is motivated by an open problem of G. Fejes Tóth, G. Kuperberg, and W. Kuperberg, which asks whether of a honeycomb circle packing with a linear shift defect is completely saturated. We also show that an fcc sphere packing in $\R^3$ with a planar gap defect is also not completely saturated.
A packing by a body $K$ is collection of congruent copies of $K$ (in either Euclidean or hyperbolic space) so that no two copies intersect nontrivially in their interiors. A covering by $K$ is a collection of congruent copies of $K$ such that for every point $p$ in the space there is copy in the collection containing $p$. A completely saturated packing is one in which it is not possible to replace a finite number of bodies of the packing with a larger number and still remain a packing. A completely reduced covering is one in which it is not possible to replace a finite number of bodies of the …
The notion of a completely saturated packing [Fejes Toth, Kuperberg and Kuperberg, Highly saturated packings and reduced coverings, Monats. Math. 125 (1998) 127-145] is a sharper version of maximum density, and the analogous notion of a completely reduced covering is a sharper version of minimum density. We define two related notions: uniformly recurrent and weakly recurrent dense packings, and diffusively dominant packings. Every compact domain in Euclidean space has a uniformly recurrent dense packing. If the domain self-nests, such a packing is limit-equivalent to a completely saturated one…
In this paper we discuss various special problems on packing and covering. Among others we survey the problems and results concerning finite arrangements, Minkowskian, saturated, compact, and totally separable packings. We discuss shortest path problems and questions about stability of packings.
The famous Kepler conjecture has a less spectacular, two-dimensional equivalent: The theorem of Thue states that the densest circle packing in the Euclidean plane has a hexagonal structure. A common proof uses Voronoi cells and analyzes their area applying Jensen's inequality on convex functions to receive a local estimate which is globally valid. Based on the concept of Voronoi cells, we will introduce a new tessellation into so-called L-triangles which can be related to fundamental parallelograms of lattice circle packings. Therefore a globally disordered circle packing can be reduced to loc…
The present work surveys problems in $n$-dimensional space with $n$ large. Early development in the study of packing and covering in high dimensions was motivated by the geometry of numbers. Subsequent results, such as the discovery of the Leech lattice and the linear programming bound, which culminated in the recent solution of the sphere packing problem in dimensions 8 and 24, were influenced by coding theory. After mentioning the known results concerning existence of economical packings and coverings we discuss the different methods yielding upper bounds for the density of packing congruent…
In \cite{Sz17-2} we proved that to each saturated congruent hyperball packing exists a decomposition of $3$-dimensional hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^3$ into truncated tetrahedra. Therefore, in order to get a density upper bound for hyperball packings, it is sufficient to determine the density upper bound of hyperball packings in truncated simplices. In this paper we prove, using the above results and the results of papers \cite{M94} and \cite{Sz14}, that the density upper bound of the saturated congruent hyperball (hypersphere) packings related to the corresponding truncated tetrahedron cells …
Supergroups of some hyperbolic space groups are classified as a continuation of our former works. Fundamental domains will be integer parts of truncated tetrahedra belonging to families F1 - F4, for a while, by the notation of E. Molnár et al. in $2006$. As an application, optimal congruent hyperball packings and coverings to the truncation base planes with their very good densities are computed. This covering density is better than the conjecture of L.~Fejes~Tóth for balls and horoballs in $1964$.
This paper suveys different variants of the following problem: Given a convex set $K$ and a sequence $\{C_i\}$ of convex bodies in $E^n$, is it possible to pack the sequence of bodies in $K$ or cover $K$ with the bodies? Algorithmic versions of these problems are on-line packing and on-line covering: The bodies of the sequence are given one at a time and the algorithm is to decide on the placement of the arriving body before the next body is revealed; once placed, the body cannot be moved.
In $n$-dimensional hyperbolic space $\mathbf{H}^n$ $(n\ge2)$ there are $3$-types of spheres (balls): the sphere, horosphere and hypersphere. If $n=2,3$ we know an universal upper bound of the ball packing densities, where each ball volume is related to the volume of the corresponding Dirichlet-Voronoi (D-V) cell. E.g. in $\mathbf{H}^3$ the densest horoball packing is derived from the $\{3,3,6\}$ Coxeter tiling consisting of ideal regular simplices $T_{reg}^\infty$ with dihedral angles $\fracπ{3}$. The density of this packing is $δ_3^\infty\approx 0.85328$ and this provides a very rough upper b…
For every convex disk $K$ (a convex compact subset of the plane, with non-void interior), the packing density $δ(K)$ and covering density $\vartheta(K)$ form an ordered pair of real numbers, {\em i.e.}, a point in ${\mathbb R}^2$. The set $Ω$ consisting of points assigned this way to all convex disks is the subject of this article. A few known inequalities on $δ(K)$ and $\vartheta(K)$ jointly outline a relatively small convex polygon $P$ that contains $Ω$, while the exact shape of $Ω$ remains a mystery. Here we describe explicitly a leaf-shaped convex region $Λ$ contained in $Ω$ and occupying …
In [BL] in relation to the unsolved Bang's plank problem (1951) we obtained a lower bound for the sum of relevant measures of cylinders covering a given d-dimensional convex body. In this paper we provide the packing counterpart of these estimates. We also extend bounds to the case of r-fold covering and packing and show a packing analog of Falconer's results ([Fa]).
This paper determines the optimal upper bound for the simultaneous packing and covering constants of the two-dimensional centrally symmetric convex domains. It solved a problem opening for more than thirty years.
In this paper we are concerned with three lattice problems: the lattice packing problem, the lattice covering problem and the lattice packing-covering problem. One way to find optimal lattices for these problems is to enumerate all finitely many, locally optimal lattices. For the lattice packing problem there are two classical algorithms going back to Minkowski and Voronoi. For the covering and for the packing-covering problem we propose new algorithms. Here we give a brief survey about these approaches. We report on some recent computer based computations where we were able to reproduce and p…
In \cite{Sz17-2} we considered hyperball packings in $3$-dimensional hyperbolic space. We developed a decomposition algorithm that for each saturated hyperball packing provides a decomposition of $\HYP$ into truncated tetrahedra. In order to get a density upper bound for hyperball packings, it is sufficient to determine the density upper bound of hyperball packings in truncated simplices. Therefore, in this paper we examine the doubly truncated Coxeter orthoscheme tilings and the corresponding congruent and non-congruent hyperball packings. We proved that related to the mentioned Coxeter tilin…
We investigate, by "a la Marcinkiewicz" techniques applied to the (asymptotic) density function, how dense systems of equal spheres of $\rb^{n}, n \geq 1,$ can be partitioned at infinity in order to allow the computation of their density as a true limit and not a limsup. The density of a packing of equal balls is the norm 1 of the characteristic function of the systems of balls in the sense of Marcinkiewicz. Existence Theorems for densest sphere packings and completely saturated sphere packings of maximal density are given new direct proofs.
We adapt a construction of Klee (1981) to find a packing of unit balls in $\ell_p$ ($1\leq p<\infty$) which is efficient in the sense that enlarging the radius of each ball to any $R>2^{1-1/p}$ covers the whole space. We show that the value $2^{1-1/p}$ is optimal.
In the packing-constrained point covering problem, PC^2, one seeks configurations of points in the plane that cannot all be covered by a packing arrangement of unit disks. We consider in particular the problem of finding the minimum number of points N for which such a configuration exists and obtain the bounds 11 <= N <= 55. The disparity of these bounds is symptomatic, we believe, of the fact that PC^2 belongs in a higher complexity class than the standard packing and covering problems.
It is well known that the lattice packing density and the lattice covering density of a triangle are $\frac{2}{3}$ and $\frac{3}{2}$ respectively. We also know that the lattices that attain these densities both are unique. Let $δ_{L}(K)$ and $\vartheta_{L}(K)$ denote the lattice packing density and the lattice covering density of $K$, respectively. In this paper, I study the lattice packings and coverings for a special class of convex disks, which includes all triangles and convex quadrilaterals. In particular, I determine the densities $δ_{L}(Q)$ and $\vartheta_{L}(Q)$, where $Q$ is an arbitr…
We describe algorithms which address two classical problems in lattice geometry: the lattice covering and the simultaneous lattice packing-covering problem. Theoretically our algorithms solve the two problems in any fixed dimension d in the sense that they approximate optimal covering lattices and optimal packing-covering lattices within any desired accuracy. Both algorithms involve semidefinite programming and are based on Voronoi's reduction theory for positive definite quadratic forms, which describes all possible Delone triangulations of Z^d. In practice, our implementations reproduce know…
In this note we prove that for any compact subset $S$ of a Busemann surface $({\mathcal S},d)$ (in particular, for any simple polygon with geodesic metric) and any positive number $δ$, the minimum number of closed balls of radius $δ$ with centers at $\mathcal S$ and covering the set $S$ is at most 19 times the maximum number of disjoint closed balls of radius $δ$ centered at points of $S$: $ν(S) \le ρ(S) \le 19ν(S)$, where $ρ(S)$ and $ν(S)$ are the covering and the packing numbers of $S$ by $δ$-balls.
After the investigation of the congruent and non-congruent hyperball packings related to doubly truncated Coxeter orthoscheme tilings \cite{SzJ1}, we consider the corresponding covering problems. In \cite{MSSz} the authors gave a partial classification of supergroups of some hyperbolic space groups whose fundamental domains will be integer parts of truncated tetrahedra, and determined the optimal congruent hyperball packing and covering configurations belonging to some of these classes. In this paper we compliment these results with the investigation of the non-congruent covering cases, and th…
After having investigated the densest packings by congruent hyperballs to the regular prism tilings in the $n$-dimensional hyperbolic space $\mathbb{H}^n$ ($n \in \mathbb{N}, n \ge 3)$ we consider the dual covering problems and determine the least dense hyperball arrangements and their densities.
We prove that for every integer $t\ge 1$ there exists a constant $c_t$ such that for every $K_t$-minor-free graph $G$, and every set $S$ of balls in $G$, the minimum size of a set of vertices of $G$ intersecting all the balls of $S$ is at most $c_t$ times the maximum number of vertex-disjoint balls in $S$. This was conjectured by Chepoi, Estellon, and Vaxès in 2007 in the special case of planar graphs and of balls having the same radius.
After having investigated the packings derived by horo- and hyperballs related to simple frustum Coxeter orthoscheme tilings we consider the corresponding covering problems (briefly hyp-hor coverings) in $n$-dimensional hyperbolic spaces $\mathbb{H}^n$ ($n=2,3$). We construct in the $2-$ and $3-$dimensional hyperbolic spaces hyp-hor coverings that are generated by simply truncated Coxeter orthocheme tilings and we determine their thinnest covering configurations and their densities. We prove that in the hyperbolic plane ($n=2$) the density of the above thinnest hyp-hor covering arbitrarily app…
G.F. Voronoi (1868-1908) wrote two memoirs in which he describes two reduction theories for lattices, well-suited for sphere packing and covering problems. In his first memoir a characterization of locally most economic packings is given, but a corresponding result for coverings has been missing. In this paper we bridge the two classical memoirs. By looking at the covering problem from a different perspective, we discover the missing analogue. Instead of trying to find lattices giving economical coverings we consider lattices giving, at least locally, very uneconomical ones. We classify local …
This paper surveys the theory of multiple packings and coverings. The study of multiple arrangements started in the 60s of the last century, and it was restricted mostly to lattice arrangements on the plane or of general arrangements of balls. We emphasize two new topics which were intensively investigated recently: decomposition of multiple coverings into simple coverings and characterization of multiple tilings.
In geometry, there are several challenging problems studying numbers associated to convex bodies. For example, the packing density problem, the kissing number problem, the covering density problem, the packing-covering constant problem, Hadwiger's covering conjecture and Borsuk's partition conjecture. They are fundamental and fascinating problems about the same objects. However, up to now, both the methodology and the technique applied to them are essentially different. Therefore, a common foundation for them has been much expected. By treating problems of these types as functionals defined on…
We reformulate the covering and quantizer problems as the determination of the ground states of interacting particles in $\mathbb{R}^d$ that generally involve single-body, two-body, three-body, and higher-body interactions. This is done by linking the covering and quantizer problems to certain optimization problems involving the "void" nearest-neighbor functions that arise in the theory of random media and statistical mechanics. These reformulations, which again exemplifies the deep interplay between geometry and physics, allow one now to employ theoretical and numerical optimization technique…
Motivated by long-standing conjectures on the discretization of classical inequalities in the Geometry of Numbers, we investigate a new set of parameters, which we call \emph{packing minima}, associated to a convex body $K$ and a lattice $Λ$. These numbers interpolate between the successive minima of $K$ and the inverse of the successive minima of the polar body of $K$, and can be understood as packing counterparts to the covering minima of Kannan & Lovász (1988). As our main results, we prove sharp inequalities that relate the volume and the number of lattice points in $K$ to the sequence of …
