Analytical Construction of A Dense Packing of Truncated Tetrahedra

Abstract

Dense polyhedron packings are useful models of a variety of condensed matter and biological systems and have intrigued scientists mathematicians for centuries. Recently, organizing principles for the types of structures associated with the densest polyhedron packings have been put forth. However, finding the maximally dense packings for specific shapes remains nontrivial and is a subject of intensive research. Here, we analytically construct the densest known packing of truncated tetrahedra with $\phi=207/208=0.995~192...$, which is amazingly close to unity and strongly implies that this packing is maximally dense. This construction is based on a generalized organizing principle for polyhedra that lack central symmetry. Moreover, we find that the holes in this putative optimal packing are small regular tetrahedra, leading to a new tiling of space by regular tetrahedra and truncated tetrahedra. We also numerically study the equilibrium melting properties of what apparently is the densest packing of truncated tetrahedra as the system undergoes decompression. Our simulations reveal two different stable crystal phases, one at high densities and the other at intermediate densities, as well as a first-order liquid-crystal phase transition.