Asymptotic shape of finite packings

http://dx.doi.org/10.4153/CJM-1998-002-5
Canad. J. Math. 50(1998), 16-28

  Published:1998-02-01
 Printed: Feb 1998

Let $K$ be a convex body in $\ed$ and denote by $\cn$ the set of centroids of $n$ non-overlapping translates of $K$. For $\varrho>0$, assume that the parallel body $\cocn+\varrho K$ of $\cocn$ has minimal volume. The notion of parametric density (see~\cite{Wil93}) provides a bridge between finite and infinite packings (see~\cite{BHW94} or~\cite{Hen}). It is known that there exists a maximal $\varrho_s(K)\geq 1/(32d^2)$ such that $\cocn$ is a segment for $\varrho<\varrho_s$ (see~\cite{BHW95}). We prove the existence of a minimal $\varrho_c(K)\leq d+1$ such that if $\varrho>\varrho_c$ and $n$ is large then the shape of $\cocn$ can not be too far from the shape of $K$. For $d=2$, we verify that $\varrho_s=\varrho_c$. For $d\geq 3$, we present the first example of a convex body with known $\varrho_s$ and $\varrho_c$; namely, we have $\varrho_s=\varrho_c=1$ for the parallelotope.