Eytan Katzav (Racah Institute of Physics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel). Packing Problems - a Statistical Physics Approach

Packing problems play an important role in many areas of physics and mathematics. One can classify packing problems according to the dimensionality of the container and the dimensionality of the packed objects, as well as the kind of interactions between the objects. Probably the most famous example, which is still extensively studies is hard spheres, modelling phases of matter, such as crystals, fluids and glasses. In higher dimensions optimal packings are related to questions in information theory.We will show how statistical physics can be helpful to understand a variety of packing problems by offering a powerful toolbox of techniques and modelling approaches, ranging from phenomenological thermodynamic modelling to more formal field theoretic methods. Certain similarities between the different problems and techniques will be highlighted, that may guide future directions in this field.