Sphere Packings, Lattices and Groups (Grundlehren der mathematischen Wissenschaften, 290)

The third edition of this definitive and popular 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 examine such related issues as the kissing number problem, the covering problem, the quantizing problem, and the classification of lattices and quadratic forms. There is also a description of the applications of these questions to other areas of mathematics and science such as number theory, coding theory, group theory, analogue-to-digital conversion and data compression, n-dimensional crystallography, dual theory and superstring theory in physics. New and of special interest is a report on some recent developments in the field, and an updated and enlarged supplementary bibliography with over 800 items.