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The Magic Dimensions 8 and 24
William Thurston Lectures| Speaker: | Henry Cohn, Microsoft Research and MIT |
| Related Webpage: | https://cohn.mit.edu |
| Location: | 1147 MSB |
| Start time: | Mon, May 12 2025, 3:10PM |
The exact solution to the sphere packing problem is known in only five cases: 1, 2, 3, 8, and 24 dimensions. What's so special about 8 and 24 dimensions? Why not, for example, 16? Or 4? That question remains somewhat mysterious. In this talk, we'll take a look at how sphere packing works, and we'll examine the proof techniques behind 8 and 24 dimensions.