The third edition of this book continues to pursue the question, what is the most efficient way to pack a large number of equal spheres in n-dimensional Euclidean space? The authors also continue to examine related problems such as the kissing number problem, the covering problem, the quantizing problem, and the classification of lattices and quadratic forms. Like the previous edition, the third edition describes the connections of these questions with other areas of mathematics and science such as coding theory, digital communication, number theory, group theory, analog-to-digital conversion and data compression, and n-dimensional crystallography. Of special interest in the third edition is a report on some recent developments in the field and a supplementary bibliography for 1988-1998 containing over 800 items. |