2002/09/17 by Werner Krauth
Physics and Astronomy · #cond-mat.dis-nn
published as Markov Processes Relat. Fields 8, 215 (2002) · 6 pages, 5 figures, Talk given at the conference `Inhomogeneous Random Systems' University of Cergy-Pontoise, France, (23 January 2001)
arxiv created 2002/09/17 · arxiv updated 2009/11/30
I describe the classic circle-packing problem on a sphere, and the analytic and numerical approaches that have been used to study it. I then present a very simple Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithm, which succeeds in finding the best solutions known today. The behavior of the algorithm is put into the context of the statistical physics of glasses.