Remarks on soft ball packings in dimensions 2 and 3

Abstract

We study translative arrangements of centrally symmetric convex domains in the plane (resp., of congruent balls in the Euclidean $3$-space) that neither pack nor cover. We define their soft density depending on a soft parameter and prove that the largest soft density for soft translative packings of a centrally symmetric convex domain with $3$-fold rotational symmetry and given soft parameter is obtained for a proper soft lattice packing. Furthermore, we show that among the soft lattice packings of congruent soft balls with given soft parameter the soft density is locally maximal for the corresponding face centered cubic (FCC) lattice.