Unusually Dense Crystal Packings of Ellipsoids
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≈0.7405. A remarkable maximum density of φ≈0.7707 is achieved for maximal aspect ratios larger than √(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.
- Publication:
-
Physical Review Letters
- Pub Date:
- June 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.255506
- arXiv:
- arXiv:cond-mat/0403286
- Bibcode:
- 2004PhRvL..92y5506D
- Keywords:
-
- 61.50.Ah;
- 05.20.Jj;
- Theory of crystal structure crystal symmetry;
- calculations and modeling;
- Statistical mechanics of classical fluids;
- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics;
- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter;
- Mathematics - Metric Geometry
- E-Print:
- doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.255506