I asked a similar question on SciComp, but it is a little out of the domain, so I thought I'd give it a try here as well.
Give n points, I would like to place them in a periodic box (periodic such that the distance between two points "wraps around" to the other side) so that the minimum distance between any two points is as large as it can possibly be.
How do I do this? I imagine analytically this could be quite difficult, but is there at least a numerical procedure?
Best Answer
This kind of problem is very hard. You might have a look at packomania which has solutions for many numbers of circles in squares and rectangles. Most of them are found experimentally and not proven to be maximal. You can almost incorporate the wraparound by shrinking the square or rectangle by the radius in each direction, but I don't think it gets the corners right.