50 research outputs found
Experimental study of energy-minimizing point configurations on spheres
In this paper we report on massive computer experiments aimed at finding
spherical point configurations that minimize potential energy. We present
experimental evidence for two new universal optima (consisting of 40 points in
10 dimensions and 64 points in 14 dimensions), as well as evidence that there
are no others with at most 64 points. We also describe several other new
polytopes, and we present new geometrical descriptions of some of the known
universal optima.Comment: 41 pages, 12 figures, to appear in Experimental Mathematic