Filling (some of) Euclidean space with congruent round spheres

Daniel Asimov
Department of Mathematics, University of Pennsylvania

Abstract: We discuss the history of attempts to fill R3 with disjoint circles, and then address the question of continuously partitioning a connected open subset U of R2k+1 into congruent k-spheres. This is possible only for finitely many k, and in those cases there is a number Mk such that

volume(U) ≤ Mk

for any such U. Time permitting, we will show some related computer graphics.