Packing Hyperspheres in High-Dimensional Euclidean Spaces

Dynamical signatures are known to precede jamming in hard-particle systems, but static structural signatures have proven more elusive. The observation that compressing hard-particle packings towards jamming causes growing hyperuniformity has paved the way for the analysis of jamming as an "inverted critical point" in which the direct correlation function $c(r)$ diverges. We establish quantitative relationships between various singularities in $c(r)$ and the total correlation ...

We introduce a generalization of the well-known random sequential addition (RSA) process for hard spheres in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$. We show that all of the $n$-particle correlation functions of this nonequilibrium model, in a certain limit called the "ghost" RSA packing, can be obtained analytically for all allowable densities and in any dimension. This represents the first exactly solvable disordered sphere-packing model in arbitrary dimension. The f...

Despite its long history, there are many fundamental issues concerning random packings of spheres that remain elusive, including a precise definition of random close packing (RCP). We argue that the current picture of RCP cannot be made mathematically precise and support this conclusion via a molecular dynamics study of hard spheres using the Lubachevsky-Stillinger compression algorithm. We suggest that this impasse can be broken by introducing the new concept of a maximally ...

The problem of finding the most efficient way to pack spheres has an illustrious history, dating back to the crystalline arrays conjectured by Kepler and the random geometries explored by Bernal in the 60's. This problem finds applications spanning from the mathematician's pencil, the processing of granular materials, the jamming and glass transitions, all the way to fruit packing in every grocery. There are presently numerous experiments showing that the loosest way to pack ...

In a recent paper (cond-mat/0506445) we derived an expression for the replicated free energy of a liquid of hard spheres based on the HNC free energy functional. An approximate equation of state for the glass and an estimate of the random close packing density were obtained in d=3. Here we show that the HNC approximation is not needed: the same expression can be obtained from the full diagrammatic expansion of the replicated free energy. Then, we consider the asymptotics of t...

In the first paper of this series, we introduced Voronoi correlation functions to characterize the structure of maximally random jammed (MRJ) sphere packings across length scales. In the present paper, we determine a variety of correlation functions that can be rigorously related to effective physical properties of MRJ sphere packings and compare them to the corresponding statistical descriptors for overlapping spheres and equilibrium hard-sphere systems. Such structural desc...

We explore quantitative descriptors that herald when a many-particle system in $d$-dimensional Euclidean space $\mathbb{R}^d$ approaches a hyperuniform state as a function of the relevant control parameter. We establish quantitative criteria to ascertain the extent of hyperuniform and nonhyperuniform distance-scaling regimes n terms of the ratio $B/A$, where $A$ is "volume" coefficient and $B$ is "surface-area" coefficient associated with the local number variance $\sigma^2(R...

We review a recently proposed theory of random packings. We describe the volume fluctuations in jammed matter through a volume function, amenable to analytical and numerical calculations. We combine an extended statistical mechanics approach 'a la Edwards' (where the role traditionally played by the energy and temperature in thermal systems is substituted by the volume and compactivity) with a constraint on mechanical stability imposed by the isostatic condition. We show how ...

We generate and study an ensemble of isostatic jammed hard-sphere lattices. These lattices are obtained by compression of a periodic system with an adaptive unit cell containing a single sphere until the point of mechanical stability. We present detailed numerical data about the densities, pair correlations, force distributions, and structure factors of such lattices. We show that this model retains many of the crucial structural features of the classical hard-sphere model an...

The aim of this paper is to review and discuss qualitatively some results on the properties of amorphous packings of hard spheres that were recently obtained by means of the replica method. The theory gives predictions for the equation of state of the glass, the complexity of the metastable states, the scaling of the pressure close to jamming, the coordination of the packing and the pair correlation function in any space dimension d. The predictions compare very well with num...