On random sequential packing in the plane and a conjecture of palasti

Abstract

The random packing of geometric objects in one-, two- or three-dimensions may afford useful insights into the structure of crystals, liquids, absorbates on crystals, and in higher dimensions, into problems of pattern recognition. Random packing has accordingly received increasing attention in recent years. Two principal packing procedures have been formulated and each gives rise to different packing ratios. In one case, all possible configurations of a sphere-packed volume are assumed to be equally likely. In the other and most widely reported case, there is random sequential addition of spheres to the volume until it is packed. This is the situation we study in this paper. Most of the work to date has been limited to the theoretical study of the one-dimensional lattice or to continuous cases particularly in the limit for long lines. The higher dimensional cases have resisted theoretical attack but have been studied by computer simulation by Palasti [12] and Solomon [14] and by physical simulation by Bernal and Scott (see [14]).