$${\varepsilon}$$ ε -quasi-twelve-neighbour packings of unit balls in $${\mathbb{E}^3}$$ E 3

Abstract

Let \({\varepsilon}\) be a (small) positive number. A packing of unit balls in \({{\mathbb{E}^{3}}}\) is said to be an \({\varepsilon}\)-quasi-twelve-neighbour packing if no two balls of the packing touch each other but for each unit ball B of the packing there are twelve other balls in the packing with the property that the distance of the centre of each of these twelve balls from the centre of B is smaller than \({2+\varepsilon}\). We construct \({\varepsilon}\)-quasi-twelve-neighbour packings of unit balls in \({{\mathbb{E}^{3}}}\) for arbitrary small positive \({\varepsilon}\) with some surprising properties.