The thirteen spheres problem is asking if 13 equal size nonoverlapping
spheres in three dimensions can touch another sphere of the same size. This
problem was the subject of the famous discussion between Isaac Newton and David
Gregory in 1694. The problem was solved by Schutte and van der Waerden only in
1953.
A natural extension of this problem is the strong thirteen spheres problem
(or the Tammes problem for 13 points) which asks to find an arrangement and the
maximum radius of 13 equal size nonoverlapping spheres touching the unit
sphere. In the paper we give a solution of this long-standing open problem in
geometry. Our computer-assisted proof is based on a enumeration of the
so-called irreducible graphs.Comment: Modified lemma 2, 16 pages, 12 figures. Uploaded program packag
