Packing, coding, and ground states

Abstract

These are the lecture notes from my 2014 PCMI graduate summer school lectures. In these lectures, we'll study simple models of materials from several different perspectives: geometry (packing problems), information theory (error-correcting codes), and physics (ground states of interacting particle systems). These perspectives each shed light on some of the same problems and phenomena, while highlighting different techniques and connections. One noteworthy phenomenon is the exceptional symmetry that is found in certain special cases, and we'll examine when and why it occurs. The overall theme of the lectures is thus order vs. disorder. How much symmetry can we expect to see in optimal geometric structures?