Can we define random close packing of spheres?

Sphere packing is an ancient problem. The densest packing is known to be a face-centred cubic (FCC) crystal, with a space-filling fraction π/√18. The densest “random packing,” random close packing (RCP), is yet ill-defined, although many experiments and simulations agree on a packing value of 0.64.  This talk will describe recent findings on this classic problem.

About the Speaker:
Dov Levine is a Professor in the Department of Physics at the Technion. Dov has made pioneering contributions to the theory of quasicrystals, including the prediction of their diffraction pattern. In addition to his work on quasicrystals,  his research has mainly been concentrated in soft condensed matter physics, particularly granular materials, emulsions, and foams, and more recently on systems far from equilibrium and on the quantification of unconventional order in solids.