Unusually Dense Crystal Packings of Ellipsoids

Aleksandar Donev, Frank H. Stillinger, P. M. Chaikin, and Salvatore Torquato

Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 255506 – Published 23 June 2004

Abstract

In this Letter, we report on the densest-known packings of congruent ellipsoids. The family of new packings consists of crystal arrangements of spheroids with a wide range of aspect ratios, and with density $φ$ always surpassing that of the densest Bravais lattice packing $φ \approx 0.7405$ . A remarkable maximum density of $ϕ \approx 0.7707$ is achieved for maximal aspect ratios larger than $\sqrt{3}$ , when each ellipsoid has 14 touching neighbors. Our results are directly relevant to understanding the equilibrium behavior of systems of hard ellipsoids, and, in particular, the solid and glassy phases.

Received 28 March 2004

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.255506

Authors & Affiliations

Aleksandar Donev^1,2, Frank H. Stillinger⁴, P. M. Chaikin^2,3, and Salvatore Torquato^1,2,4

¹Program in Applied and Computational Mathematics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
²Materials Institute, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
³Department of Physics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA
⁴Department of Chemistry, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544, USA

Optimal Bounds on the Trapping Constant and Permeability of Porous Media

S. Torquato and D. C. Pham

Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 255505 (2004)

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Vol. 92, Iss. 25 — 25 June 2004

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