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kissing number problem

332 years old · traced to

For an integer d≥1d\ge 1, call a finite set {x1,…,xN}⊂Rd\{x_{1},\dots,x_{N}\}\subset\mathbb{R}^{d} admissible if

xnTxn=1for all n,(xn−xm)T(xn−xm)≥1for all m≠n,x_{n}^{\mathsf{T}}x_{n}=1\quad\text{for all }n,\qquad (x_{n}-x_{m})^{\mathsf{T}}(x_{n}-x_{m})\ge 1\quad\text{for all }m\neq n,

that is, if the xnx_{n} are unit vectors whose pairwise angular separations are all at least 60∘60^{\circ}. Let

τd=max⁡{N∈N:there exists an admissible set of N vectors in Rd},\tau_{d}=\max\{N\in\mathbb{N}: \text{there exists an admissible set of } N \text{ vectors in } \mathbb{R}^{d}\},

which is finite by compactness of the unit sphere. Equivalently, τd\tau_{d} is the greatest number of closed balls of radius 11 in Rd\mathbb{R}^{d} with pairwise disjoint interiors that can all be tangent to one fixed closed ball of radius 11: after translating the fixed ball to be centred at the origin and rescaling the centres of the tangent balls by 1/21/2, tangency to the central ball becomes ∥xn∥=1\|x_{n}\|=1 and disjointness of interiors becomes ∥xn−xm∥≥1\|x_{n}-x_{m}\|\ge 1.

Determine the value of τd\tau_{d} for every integer d≥1d\ge 1.

References
  1. Wikipedia, Kissing number, the article this problem comes from.

Source: Wikipedia

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