Combinatorics Seminar

Optimally packing points on the sphere

Hans Parshall, Ohio State University

Friday, November 30th, 2018
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
Hylan 1106A

Given \(N\) points on the sphere, how large can the minimum distance between any two be? This question was raised by Tammes (1930), but solutions are known only for \(N \leq 14\) and \(N = 24\). We will discuss some recent progress and confirm the conjecture of Conway, Hardin and Sloane (1996) on the optimal packing of 8 points in the real projective plane. This is joint work with Dustin Mixon.

Event contact: hazel dot mcknight at rochester dot edu