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Gruber P. Convex and Discrete Geometry

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29 Packing of Balls <strong>and</strong> Positive Quadratic Forms 429<br />

Proof. In order to show that {ρ B d + t : t ∈ T } is a packing it is sufficient to prove<br />

the following:<br />

(1) s, t ∈ T, s �= t ⇒�s − t� ≥2ρ.<br />

Let s = c + 2u, t = d + 2v. Ifc �= d, then c − d has at least m coordinates<br />

equal to ±1. Thus s − t = c − d + 2(u − v) has at least m odd coordinates. Hence<br />

�s −t� ≥ √ m ≥ 2ρ.Ifc = d, then s −t = 2(u −v) �= o <strong>and</strong> thus �s −t� ≥2 ≥ 2ρ.<br />

This concludes the proof of (1) <strong>and</strong> thus shows that {ρ B d + t : t ∈ T } is a packing.<br />

The other assertions are obvious. ⊓⊔<br />

An application of the Construction A to the [d, d − 1, 2]-even weight code for<br />

d = 3, 4, 5 yields the densest lattice packing of balls in these dimensions. If this<br />

construction is applied to the (7, 8, 4)-code constructed earlier by means of the<br />

Hadamard matrix H8, it yields the densest lattice packing of balls for d = 7.<br />

Using a refined version of construction A <strong>and</strong> codes with large alphabets, Rush<br />

[862] was able to construct lattice packings of B d of density 2 −d+o(d) , thus reaching<br />

the Minkowski–Hlawka bound, see Theorem 29.3.<br />

Theorem 29.5. Construction B: Let C be a (d, M, m)-code such that the weight of<br />

each code-word is even. Let<br />

T = � t ∈ C + 2Z d � √ �<br />

� √2, m<br />

: 4 | t1 +···+td ,ρ= min<br />

.<br />

2<br />

Then {ρ B d + t : t ∈ T } is a packing of density<br />

If C is linear, then T is a lattice.<br />

Mρd V (B d )<br />

2d+1 .<br />

The proof of this result is similar to that of Theorem 29.4 <strong>and</strong> thus is omitted.<br />

The Leech Lattice<br />

If Construction B is applied to the Golay code G24, we obtain a lattice packing<br />

{B 24 + (1/ √ 2) l : l ∈ L}. It turns out that a suitable translate of this packing fits<br />

into the space left uncovered. This gives again a lattice packing {B 24 + (1/ √ 2) m :<br />

m ∈ M} where M is the lattice L ∪ (L + a), a = (1/2)(1, 1,...,1, −3), theLeech<br />

lattice. The Leech lattice goes back to the Göttingen thesis of Niemeier [771]. Cohn<br />

<strong>and</strong> Kumar [211] proved that it provides the densest lattice packing of balls in E 24 .<br />

The number of neighbours of B 24 in the Leech lattice packing of B 24 is 196560. This<br />

is the maximum number of neighbours of B 24 in any lattice packing <strong>and</strong>, moreover,<br />

in any packing of B 24 as shown by Levenˇstein [652] <strong>and</strong> Odlyzko <strong>and</strong> Sloane [775].<br />

See also Zong [1049].

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