kissing number problem
kissing number problem
For an integer , call a finite set admissible if
that is, if the are unit vectors whose pairwise angular separations are all at least . Let
which is finite by compactness of the unit sphere. Equivalently, is the greatest number of closed balls of radius in with pairwise disjoint interiors that can all be tangent to one fixed closed ball of radius : after translating the fixed ball to be centred at the origin and rescaling the centres of the tangent balls by , tangency to the central ball becomes and disjointness of interiors becomes .
Determine the value of for every integer .
References
Primary source
Additional references
- Wikipedia, Kissing number, the article this problem comes from.
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