On the 1-density of Unit Ball Covering

Abstract

Motivated by modern applications like image processing and wireless sensor networks, we consider a variation of the famous Kepler Conjecture. Given any infinite set of unit balls covering the whole space, we want to know the optimal (lim sup) density of the volume which is covered by exactly one ball (i.e., the maximum such density over all unit ball covers, called the {\em optimal 1-density} and denoted as $\delta_d$, where $d$ is the dimension of the Euclidean space). We prove that in 2D the optimal 1-density $\delta_2=(3\sqrt(3)-\pi)/\pi \approx 0.6539$, which is achieved through a regular hexagonal covering. In 3D, the problem is widely open and we present a Dodecehadral Cover Conjecture which states that the optimal 1-density in 3D, $\delta_3$, is bounded from above by the 1-density of a unit ball whose Voronoi polyhedron is a regular dodecahedron of circum-radius one (determined by 12 extra unit balls). We show numerically that this 1-density $\delta_3(dc)\approx 0.315$.